


tell yourself

by taeyang91



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, BASICALLY JUST A BUNCH OF TROPES THAT IM GARBAGE FOR OKAY DON'T @ ME, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fake/Pretend Relationship, IN THIS HOUSE WE MAKE BASIC GRAMMAR MISTAKES LIKE MEN, Kinda, M/M, Minor Dong Si Cheng | WinWin/Nakamoto Yuta, Minor Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Lee Taeyong, Not Beta Read, cause i dont know how colleges in sk work lol, dw, enemies to fake lovers to lovers, except that they all live in dorms, like everyones gay kinda, nothing is researched either i dont know even one thing about anything thank YOU, or rather, the college part isn't relevant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-01-22 06:57:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12475944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taeyang91/pseuds/taeyang91
Summary: in which ten is kinda an asshole, johnnys also kinda an asshole, and all of their friends have boundary issuesfake dating aucollege au





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> okay i had this idea kinda cementing in my head for a couple days and then the vlive with ten & taeyong on nct night night and within the first 3 minutes i was overcome with the crushing realization that i am.... johnten trash.... SO HERES ANOTHER GARBAGE FIC GOOD MORNING THANK YOU FOR HAVING ME  
> 

Being too nice, too afraid to hurt people’s feelings. That was Ten’s problem. Or more, that was the root cause of all of his problems. He had one of those faces, thats what people told him, a resting nice face, or whatever.  And people never failed to remind him of this. 

“You’re too nice. Thats your problem.” Taeyong reminded him. He had barely been listening to Tens complaining, but he knew, as most people did, that that was the root cause of most if not all of his problems.

“I just didn’t want to hurt her feelings.” Ten whined, laying his head down against the stack of papers Taeyong had been miraculously organizing on the table.  

“You could have just said ‘Sorry, I’m not looking to date’ or even if you had to ‘I don’t like girls’,” Taeyong pulled his notes out from under Tens head with a loud huff, “Why did you promise to bring your fake boyfriend to the staff dinner thats in--” He looked at his wrist, in the spot where a watch would be if he had one, “2 and a half hours?” 

“You don’t have a watch, you’re not looking at anything right now,” Ten informed him politely, avoiding the question. 

Taeyong gave him a look of annoyance, “First of all, not the point, don’t change the subject,” He said, “Second, what are you planning on doing?” 

“It’s really not that big of a deal,” Ten shrugged, “I could just pretend that he’s sick or--” 

“I mean if you insist…” Taeyong cut him off, looking a little too smug, “I  _ guess _ I can make time in my schedule, but you’ll owe me one,” He held a finger up in an almost threatening way. 

“No thank you,” Ten replied, stifling a laugh. 

“What? Why?” Taeyong demanded, looking genuinely offended. 

Ten groaned, mostly at his own existence at this point, “I already told her all about him, if you showed up, she would definitely know I was lying.” He splayed his arms out across the table, knocking a textbook onto the floor. 

Taeyong said nothing. He just looked at Ten and raised his eyebrows. 

“Its too late, just shut up and help me.” Ten responded, throwing a pencil at Taeyongs head. He knew exactly what Taeyong meant by this look and it pissed him off. 

“So tell me about him,” Taeyong laughed obnoxiously as he leaned down to pick up the textbook Ten had knocked over, “Like, does he have a car?” He was mocking him. Asshole.  

“Stop being an asshole and I’ll tell you,” Ten responded with a glare. Sometimes he really did genuinely not remember why he hung out with Taeyong.

“Nope.” Taeyong said. He pulled an iced coffee out of seemingly thin air, and took a sip. 

Ten stared at him. Taeyong stared back. 

 “Where did that coffee come from?” Ten asked. 

 “Just tell me,” Taeyong ignored him. 

 “Fuck. Okay.” Ten raised his palms up in submission, “I hate you, but, okay, so… He’s tall and smart, and we met in highschool, and on our first date, we drove up to the top of a mountain, and laid in the sun all day and then--”

“I changed my mind, I’m not helping you,” Taeyong cut him off, turning back to the textbook he’d abandoned after Ten had so rudely interrupted his studying.  

“What? Why?” Ten asked, taken aback. 

“I’m offended that you’re indirectly calling me short and dumb.” Taeyong replied, not looking at Ten at all as he punched a few numbers into his calculator, “Also, I can’t believe you told a coworker you lay on a mountain in the sun with your boyfriend. I can’t believe I interact with a person who thinks thats anything but disgusting,” He was only partially joking. 

“I thought I was very directly calling you short and dumb,” Ten joked. 

Taeyong said nothing. 

“Fine. Leave me to die. I don’t care.” Ten mumbled to himself, pushing himself off of the table in annoyance. 

“Ask Johnny or something. Hes tall.” Taeyong offered, barely glancing up at him. 

Ten laughed in surprise, “I don’t know if you remember, but I don’t think that Johnnys particularly fond of me,” This was true. No one could deny this. 

“So? He’s particularly fond of free dinner.” Taeyong replied with a shrug, giving Ten what he, no doubt, felt was a meaningful look. 

“I hate you.” Ten reminded Taeyong. 

“Love you too,” Taeyong murmured back, turning his attention back to his studying. 

 

So Ten walked to Johnny’s dorm, which he shared with Jaehyun almost entirely across campus from Ten’s room. He wasn’t particularly sure why he was walking to Johnnys dorm. There were plenty of other tall people, many of whom would probably be a much more pleasant person to spend the evening with. But he didn’t have much time. He supposed that must be the reason. 

He knocked twice. 

The door slid open, and a very disgruntled Jaehyun appeared. He looked surprised, but not in a bad way, “Ten.” He greeted.   

Ten took a step back and looked at Jaehyun. Jaehyun looked uncomfortable. Uncomfortable, but tall. “What are you doing tonight?” Ten asked. 

“Studying, why?” Jaehyun responded, leaning an arm on the door frame like an asshole in an 80s movie, “Got a huge test in the morning.” Jaehyun laughed. More like punctuation, to make up for the briefness of his statement than out of humor.

“Dammit.” Ten sighed and bit his lip, “Is Johnny here?”    
“Johnny?” Jaehyun repeated, giving Ten a weird look. It was well known that Ten and Johnny didn’t get along. They didn’t dislike each other, not in so many words at least, but they had a habit of disagreeing. Jaehyun knew this better than most, as he’d once split a cab back with the 2 of them after an unfortunately rough night out, and was sandwiched between them, as Ten repeatedly and drunkenly demanded to know why Johnny thought he was so much better than everyone else. If you asked, Ten would say he found Johnny annoying and controlling. Johnny would just say that he ‘doesn’t understand his whole ‘thing’ and that they ‘had a tendency to butt heads sometimes’’. 

“Yeah.” Ten nodded, choosing to leave it at that. Maybe for the air of mystery. Maybe because he just didn’t care enough to explain. 

Jaehyun stepped back to give Ten space to enter, “He’s in the shower, come in.” He offered. 

Ten smiled and slipped past him into the small living space. 

For story tellings sake, I’m going to skip the couple minutes of awkwardness as Ten pretended to be fascinated with Jaehyuns explanation of his essay, and pretending that it wasn’t weird to have a poster of a lady with her boobs out hanging above his bed. We’re just going to pretend, that fates aligned, and Johnny came out of the bathroom the second Ten walked in. 

“Stop using all of my fucking conditioner Ja--” Johnny grumbled, appearing out of a cloud of steam like God himself. If God was a lanky, slightly damp college bro. He stopped talking when he noticed Ten sitting on his bed, smiling up at him like it was the most casual thing in the world, “Ten.” He greeted. 

“Yo.” Ten responded. 

There was a pause. 

Then Johnny moved on from Ten, to continue chiding Jaehyun.“Seriously dude, how do you manage to use the entire bottle in less than three days? You don’t even have that much hair,” He tossed the empty bottle toward Jaehyuns head. It missed completely. 

“I don’t even use conditioner,” Jaehyun argued, picking the discarded bottle off of the floor and throwing it right back at Johnny, with better aim this time. 

“You’re such a fucking liar.” Johnny muttered. He moved to sit down on his bed, and then froze, as if he’d just remembered the presence of the other person in the room. He looked at Ten, “What are you doing here?” It wasn’t hostile. It was curious. Again, they didn’t dislike each other. Just didn’t get along. 

“I’m here to ask if you’re free tonight.” Ten said. This was true. 

“Why?” Johnny demanded. This time, slightly hostile. 

“I want you to come for dinner with me.” Ten said. 

Johnny paused, with a face like he’d smelt sour milk, “Are you asking me out?” 

“No!” Ten responded, quickly, hating the familiar feeling of heat trickling up his neck and cheeks. He paused. “Well. Kind of.” He admitted. 

“Flattered, but, no, thank you.” Johnny shot Jaehyun a look of confusion. Jaehyun just shrugged.

“Not for real!” Ten insisted. He took a deep breath, “I told my coworker that I had a boyfriend because she kept asking me out, and then I told her I’d bring him to the staff dinner tonight, and Taeyong was going to do it but he’s too short and dumb, so I thought I’d…” He trailed off. 

“What?” Johnny asked. 

“I’ll do your homework for a week.” Ten offered. 

“I’m good,” Johnny replied. 

“A month.” 

“No thank you.” 

“A year!” 

“Ten I’ve seen your grades, you doing my homework really wouldn’t be a favour.” Johnny rolled his eyes and sighed. 

Ten almost got offended, before remembering that Johnny wasn’t wrong. He groaned, “Its a really fancy restaurant, and I’ll pay for your meal, okay?” He didn’t want to have had to offer this, he’d seen the price of the appetizers alone in the e-vite. It wasn’t a pretty sight. 

“Shit, man, I’ll do it.” Jaehyun offered quietly from the other side of the room. 

Johnny looked at him, then back at Ten, then back at Jaehyun, “No you can’t, I’m doing it.” He responded rudely.

“You are?” Ten echoed. He mentally punished himself for not thinking of the thrill of competition before offering to drop way more money that he should’ve offered to drop on this. 

Johnny shrugged, “Guess so.” He looked almost embarrassed, “Not to help you though, I just have no money until the end of the month, and I need to eat something not made in a microwave.” 

Ten didn’t know how to respond. He just smiled and held up a hand for a high five. Johnny ignored him, and walked back into the bathroom. 

 

“So you’re going on a date with your mortal enemy?” Yuta asked, swinging his legs back and forth over the edge of the bed. 

“Its not a date. And he’s not my enemy.” Ten responded, trying for the thirteenth time to tie his tie. 

“How is it not a date?” Yuta laughed, “And how is he not your enemy?” 

“It’s not real. We’re friends.” Ten glared at Yuta through the mirror he’d been intently staring into for the last half an hour. 

“You’re friends?” Yuta scoffed, “I once had to hold you back from punching him after he told you not to eat donuts out of the garbage can when you were drunk.” 

“So we butt heads sometimes, so what?” Ten untied his tie again and made a frustrated groan, “All my friends like him, for whatever reason, so why wouldn’t I?” 

“The fact that you have to add ‘for whatever reason’ everytime you suggest someone harbouring even the slightest amount of non negative emotions toward him is pretty telling.” Yuta grinned, shoving a piece of cake into his mouth, letting crumbs spill all over Winwins bed. Ten didn’t remember him having the cake a few minutes ago. 

“Why are you even here?” Ten asked, ignoring Yutas comments completely, “Winwin won’t be here for another hour.” 

“Sicheng told me I could wait here for him.” Yuta replied smugly. This was a funny story. When Winwin had first moved to Korea, he’d introduced himself as “Winwin” as an attempt to not make any personal connections. (Not that he was rude, just ultimately perpetually uninterested in anything ever) He had, however, made personal connections and found himself in the middle of Tens friend group, where he then had to continue his lie for longer than he had planned. No one found out his real name until earlier that year, when Ten had gotten an email from the university informing him of a dorm mate change. He had confidently asked his friends at lunch if they knew someone named “Dong Sicheng” to which, in response, Winwin just silently stood up and left the building. Yuta was the only one who instantly made the change in names. Everyone else didn’t really care enough. 

“Whatever.” Ten grumbled, “You guys are gross.” 

“My dear Chittaphon,” Yuta crooned, falling back against the mattress dramatically, “How I wish we were gross,” 

“Don’t call me Chittaphon, I told you already, its really weird.” Ten said, pulling out his phone and checking the time, “Also, you know I don’t want to hear about how much you want to bone my roommate,” And with that comment, he stood, grabbed his bag and jacket, and left the room, leaving his tie untied and hanging loosely around his neck.

 

Johnny was waiting a few doors down. He looked up as Ten approached. 

“Oh. Not your room. Thats why you weren’t answering.” He said, as way of greeting. He gestured toward the door he was partially leaning against. He wasn’t dressed half as formally as Ten, he was, unfortunately, wearing a baggy olive green t shirt with a mysterious stain on the collar. Ten suddenly felt a bit self conscious in his semi formal get up. 

“That would be the reason why.” Ten agreed. It was more than a bit awkward now, having most of their interactions been with at least 2 other people around and/or completely plastered out of their minds, this was a weird change. Ten wasn’t sure if he should act like they were friends or not. Or fake boyfriends. Whatever. 

“Nice tie.” Johnny noted. 

“Shut up.” Ten responded. In a joking friend way, because they really were not even enemies. 

Johnny let out a small laugh and stepped forward, “Here,” He mumbled, pulling the fabric towards him, and expertly doing in 30 seconds what Ten couldn’t do in over an hour. 

“Thanks,” Ten mumbled in response. He didn’t like having Johnny this close to him. 

“How do you survive in this world without knowing how to tie a tie?” Johnny joked, stepping back to resume his spot against the wall. 

“I don’t know, how do you survive in this world without knowing how many pictures of partially naked women is standard to have on your bedroom walls?” Ten shot back without thinking. Too hostile. Dial it back, he reminded himself, taking a deep breath. 

Johnny surprised him by bursting into almost hysterical laughter, “First of all, Jaehyuns,” He replied, wiping away an imaginary tear. There was no second of all, he left it at that. 

They fell back into silence for a moment. 

“So should we go?” Ten prompted, swaying back and forth on his heels as he spoke, he was just hoping that past him had remembered to tell Johnny he was expected to drive. 

“Yeah.” Johnny nodded, picking his discarded bag up off the floor, “Allons-y?” He asked, never failing to dangle his one year of Highschool French in anyone's face at any given opportunity. He started to walk, pulling his car keys out of his bag as he did. Ten didn’t think he had mentioned it, but Johnny apparently, assumed. Whether that was a clue towards Johnny’s true kind heart (doubtful) or Johnnys knowledge of Tens general incompetence was unknown. But Ten didn’t mind either way. 

They walked a little bit too far for Tens liking, all the way into the third student parking lot, and climbed into Johnnys van, which wasn’t even locked, to Tens surprise, but looked beat up enough that Ten severly doubted anyone would care enough to even try to steal anything from it, nevertheless the car itself. 

“Hey you see that stain there?” Johnny asked, the moment he sat down. He was pretending to be conversational, as he adjusted the rear view mirror. 

 “Which stain?” Ten asked politely, playing dumb. 

 “Big and red, on the back seat there.” Johnny explained, pulling the car to a rumbling start. 

 “No, can’t see anything,” Ten lied, rolling his eyes. Johnny had not let Ten or anyone Ten knew forget the first time they’d met, when Ten had split an entire order of sweet and sour pork, from the fast food chinese place near the campus, directly onto the backseat of Johnnys car. There barely was a stain anymore, but Johnny refused to see anything other than the sticky mess from the first day it’d happened. Asshole. “Where’s this restaurant anyways?” Johnny asked, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel as they pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street. 

“Oh, I have no idea.” Ten replied. This was true. He hadn’t even looked up the address. 

“Are you fucking…” Johnny started to ask in English, exhaling in exasperation. He stopped himself, “Can you look it up then?” He smiled sarcastically at Ten. 

“Yeah, okay,” Ten said, trying to ignore the subconcious way his teeth were gritting. Johnny was one of the only people who was skilled at trying to get under his skin, even if he wasn’t actually trying. Ten pulled his phone out of his pocket and pulled up the map function, he paused, “I don’t know where this is, Korean street numbers make no sense to me,” He admitted. 

“Fucking hell,” Johnny muttered, reaching over to take the phone from Ten, he studied the screen and then nodded, “This is on the other side of town, you’re going to owe me for gas,” He said, matter-of-factly.

“Okay.” Ten said. 

“Okay.” Johnny agreed. 

They fell into silence again, and Ten was tempted to let it go for the rest of the car ride, but he had stuff he knew they needed to do before they got to the restaurant. 

“How did we meet?” Ten asked, suddenly, breaking the silence. 

“What?” Johnny raised an eyebrow. 

“How did we meet?” Ten repeated. 

“Taeyong swore you were cool and brought you to hang out and you split sweet and sour pork in my car,” Johnny reminded him. 

“Thanks but not what I meant,” Ten scoffed, “I mean… In our fake story.” 

Johnny looked at him, then back out at the road, “I forgot we were doing this stupid thing,” 

“So you just thought we were going on a date?” Ten questioned, falsely sweet. 

Johnny ignored him, and fell back into silence. 

“Highschool.” Ten told him, “We went on top of a mountain and watched the clouds, okay?” 

“Thats romantic.” Johnny muttered, mockingly, not taking his eyes off of the road. 

“Whatever.” Ten responded, completely giving up already and sinking down into his seat, so his knees were resting on the dashboard. 

And they sat in silence for the rest of the car ride. 

The restaurant was fancier than Ten had anticipated. They even had valet parking. Why the boss of a craft supply store had decided to take her total of 6 employees out for dinner here was beyond Ten completely. Why Ten had decided to take Johnny to this dinner was even farther beyond him. 

“Cool.” Johnny said, after passing his keys to the concerned looking valet driver, who, no doubt, wasn’t used to seeing 18 year old vans with sharpie drawings on the dashboard and a million and five charms hanging from the mirrors, but Johnny didn’t seem bothered by his reaction in the slightest. 

“Ready?” Ten asked, looking up at him. God damn tall people. 

“Nope.” Johnny admitted, shoving his hands into his pockets and shrugging. 

“Okay. Well. Then, Just…” Ten sighed, “Don’t say anything.” He directed, as he looped his arm around Johnnys and lead him in through the doorway. 

“Ten!” A coworker of his recognized him the moment he entered. He honestly couldn’t remember his name. He strode over, looking almost too happy to see Ten, “Glad you made it!” 

“Hello,” Ten greeted, attempting to scrape his mind for the other mans name, but failing immensely. 

“And this is…?” The coworker prompted, gesturing toward Johnny. 

“Seo Youngho.” Johnny introduced himself, with an obnoxiously large smile. Ten looked at him, with his eyebrows raised, but Johnny ignored him. 

“Nice to meet you,” The coworker matched his smile, and then turned back to where he’d walked from, “We’re sitting over there, if you would like to join us?” 

Ten considered saying no, that he wouldn’t like to join them, that he honestly just wanted to go home, but instead just nodded, and let himself be lead by the man with a forgettable name. 

They sat down awkwardly, after Ten had greeted each of his coworkers, equally as awkwardly. There were 4 different forks on the table. Ten couldn’t tell you what a single one was for. 

“Youngho, huh?” Ten asked, in a hushed tone, once the attention had been dragged away from the two of them, “Really?” 

“It’s my Korean name,” Johnny replied, in a less hushed tone, “Why are you acting like I told him my plans for world domination?” 

Ten opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by another coworker that he could not remember the name of at this present moment. Considering he only had 5 coworkers, you’d think he could’ve learned at least most of their names, right? Wrong. Apparently. 

“So how did you two meet?” She asked, sweetly, taking a sip of water. 

Ten and Johnny exchanged a glance. 

“Highschool.” Ten answered, “On our first date we wen--” 

“He was infatuated with me for months,” Johnny spoke up, cutting Ten off, “Would ask me out everyday, I finally gave in one day,” He continued, with a falsely pleasant smile, reaching over to rest a hand across one of Tens. 

Tens mouth fell open in surprise and he, on instinct, pulled his hand out and kicked Johnny in the shin as hard as he could without causing a commotion. Turns out he was bad at calculating the amount of pain one could be in without causing a commotion, as Johnnys leg reacted by flying up and hitting the table, causing a glass of water to fall and spill all over his lap. 

“Oh!” One of Tens coworkers stood up and rushed over, holding his napkin out like a sword in battle, “How did that happen?” He asked. 

“I don’t know,” Johnny responded, sourly, glaring at Ten. Johnny took the napkin away from him and waved him off, nodding his thanks. 

“I don’t remember it quite like that.” Ten stated, ignoring the turmoil his fake boyfriend was in, “I seem to remember someone planning an elaborate scheme to get me to go with him to the winter formal,” He didn’t go to highschool in Korea, he didn’t even know if the winter formal was a thing outside of the American television he used to watch when he was growing up.  

Johnny raised his eyebrows at Ten but didn’t respond. The moment was about to cross the border of being awkward, when the waiter swooped in to save them all. 

“Anyone want some drinks to get started?” He asked, holding out a notepad in a very professional looking way. He paused and looked at Johnny, “More water for you, perhaps?” He asked, with a sliver of what could be perceived as humour. 

“I’m okay, thank you,” Johnny replied, leaning forward on the table, “Can I get a bottle of your most expensive champagne, though?” He asked, ignoring the repeated smaller kicks Ten was delivering repeatedly into his shinbone. 

Ten groaned to himself, as he watched his entire months paycheck flush down the toilet before his very eyes. He dropped his foot down, tired of kicking without a reaction. He looked up to notice the waiter staring at him, giving him small prompting nods, “Shots, please,” Ten instructed, quietly, hoping his boss was too busy talking to hear him. 

“Shots, sir?” The waiter looked taken aback, “Of what?” 

“The strongest stuff you have, I don’t mind, thank you,” Ten smiled, passing the drinks menu back. This was going to be a long night. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dont @ me about consistent characterization or even moderately accurate characterization for that matter. i think my entire existence as a johnten fic writer is just tryna break out of the annoying af ten stereotypes where he probably has like ... cat ears ... for some reason .. el oh el .  
> this chapter was ................. really hard to write.... relaly easy to conceptualize .... really hard to actually write down on paper......

Ten had a habit of ripping things apart when he was nervous or stressed. Whatever was nearby, receipts, plastic bottle labels, old knitting projects, his own fingernails. He wasn’t necessarily aware of this habit, as he tended to ignore any sort of proof that he got nervous or stressed in any way. He took pride in maintaining the illusion of coolheadedness. But anyone who knew Ten would know that he was unimaginably stressed right now, judging by the state of his napkin, which he didn’t believe could legally be referred to as a napkin anymore. The word pulp comes to mind. 

“Thats what I was just telling Ten!” Johnny exclaimed, breaking into Tens thoughts. He put his fork down just to gesture over dramatically, “But he never listens,” He, for lack of a better word, guffawed. 

This broke the table into a roar of laughter, as all of them seemed to have some sort of pent up emotions regarding Tens difficult to manage habits and personality traits. Ten looked at Johnny with his eyebrows raised, trying to prompt an explanation about what it was he could have possibly ‘just been telling’ him, but Johnny ignored him. 

“No kidding,” Tens boss said, “If he wasn’t so damn likeable, I’d have fired him months ago.” 

“Lucky for me then,” Ten mumbled, feeling embarrassed. He was honestly a little bit drunk at this point. There were 2 of the 5 shots the waiter had brought remaining. He’d never been good at handling his alcohol, and worse at handling whatever light brown liquid he’d just consumed. It tasted vile.  

Johnny looked at him, with an inkling of concern behind his gaze. This pissed Ten off a little bit. He looked him like he was a wounded dog. 

“So tell me,” Tens coworker began, leaning over the table, a bit too forcefully to be conversational. This was Miyeon, this was the girl who’d asked Ten out. This was the girl who’d indirectly caused all of this to happen, “Is Ten as messy at home as he is at work?” She asked, her eyes twinkling. 

“Don’t get me started!” Johnny laughed. Again, the table laughed with him. There was, of course, no way that Johnny could know what Ten was like at home, as not only did they not live together, they hadn’t been in each other's dorms before Ten came into his room earlier today, “He leaves his shoes all over the carpet everyday, it’s ridiculous,” 

“Oh, so you’re living together?” Miyeon questioned, stabbing a fork into her starter salad with purpose. She looked really nice tonight, very put together. Ten felt a little embarrassed at the olive green stained mess of a person he’d brought. Maybe he should have just gone out with her. Would’ve been easier.

Johnny hesitated and shot a glance toward Ten, who avoided his eyes entirely, “Yeah, I guess so, I mean how many sleepovers can you have until it’s just living together?” He joked feebly. Great, now everyone was imagining them fucking. Or worse, cuddling. The idea of being domestic with Johnny made Ten want to hurl. That, or the 4 shots of mystery liquor, which is was is really up to debate. 

The waiter broke the moment by arriving with plates of food balanced along his forearms. He smiled proudly as he presented Johnny first with a ridiculously expensive looking plate of some mysterious seafood that Ten didn’t have half the Korean vocabulary necessary to know even moderately what the fuck it was. Johnny didn’t look as happy or smug as Ten would have expected, instead he looked toward Ten in an almost nervous fashion. Guilt maybe, for spending almost all of Tens money for the rest of the week in one horrific plate of food. 

“More.. shots, sir?” The waiter asked, appearing above Tens head and giving him an almost distasteful look, as if it wasn’t standard protocol to go to a fancy restaurant and order nothing except hard alcohol. Rich people. 

Ten glanced around the table. Everybody else, if drinking at all, had a beer or something similar in front of them, barely half done the first glass, “No. Thank you.” He replied awkwardly. 

The waiter nodded and slipped away back into the kitchen. 

“Let’s eat!” Ten’s boss crowed proudly, holding her fork with a vague sense of uncertainty. She was very traditional Ten had never seen her eat anything without chopsticks. He’d even caught her trying to pick apart a hamburger on a particularly late running shift. 

And so they ate. And Ten did another shot. Johnny continued to be a charismatic master of small talk. Ten continued to watch bitterly. Nothing much more of import happened until Ten took the 5th and final shot, and his vision started to blur around the edges. Usually at this point of intoxication he was a social butterfly, laughing at everything anyone said and making them laugh just as much in return. Instead he just felt uncomfortable. And it was all the fault of the boy sitting next to him. Ten pulled out his cellphone, angling it under the table in a way that he could pretend to only be looking at the ground if anyone noticed him

**To: Taeyong (7:45 pm)**

**\--this was a really bad idea and now im drunk**

 

Less than half a second later it seemed, came a response. 

**From: Taeyong (7:46 pm)**

**\--You could’ve taken me, you make your own destiny young padawan.**

**To: Taeyong (7:46 pm)** **  
** **\--shut the fuck up**

  
  


Ten was definitely quite very drunk now, and he barely remembered the process that lead him to standing outside the restaurant with his coat draped across his shoulders, staring out at the road and waiting for the valet to bring Johnny’s car around. Johnny was humming a song under his breath and bouncing up and down lightly without taking his feet off the ground. 

“You can’t drive, you drank.” Ten said, remembering suddenly. There was no way he was about to end up as a special service annoucement running on late night cable, while dead in a car next to fucking Johnny Seo. 

Johnny laughed and ran a hand through his hair, “I didn’t drink,” He responded. 

“You bought an entire bottle of champagne,” Ten reminded him quietly, “Or rather, I bought you a bottle of champagne. Which was very expensive.” He was swaying back and forth on the ball of his heel. 

Johnny pulled the bottle in question out of his backpack and waved it in front of Tens face, it wasn’t even opened, “Don’t like champagne.” He grinned like an idiot, “For my boyfriend you sure do know nothing about me,” He gave Ten a look of mock sadness and surprise. 

Ten was too drunk to even be surprised at Johnny's idiocracy, “Then why did you--” 

“Just wanted you to regret inviting me as much as possible,” Johnny sounded almost embarrassed as he shoved his hands into his front pockets. 

“Well, mission accomplished,” Ten spat. 

They fell into an uncomfortable silence. 

“You’re an asshole,” Ten mumbled, rubbing the back of his head across his nose. He felt small right now. He always felt small next to Johnny who was honestly… just way too tall. But especially right now. 

“You can’t hate me for playing the part you gave me,” Johnny argued back. 

Ten sat down on the curb. Johnny sat down next to him. 

“How drunk are you?” Johnny asked. 

“Shut up.” Ten responded. 

“Get up.” Johnny instructed. 

“Fuck you.” Ten responded. 

“The cars here. Don’t make me carry you.” Johnny stood up slowly, prodding Ten gently in the side like he was a kid poking a dead thing with a stick. 

Ten didn’t move. 

Johnny bent down and offered his back to the other boy, “Climb on,”    
Ten almost laughed, “Why would I do that?” He asked. 

“Ten.” Johnny said. 

“Fuck you, I can walk.” Ten muttered, pushing himself up off the curb with only the slightest amount of struggle. 

“Do you take pride in being difficult?” Johnny asked, reaching out an arm to steady him.  

“I don’t know, do you?” Ten shot back. 

“Whatever.” Johnny muttered, holding up his hands in resignation. He climbed into the drivers seat without so much as a second glance toward the boy standing on the curb. 

Ten grumbled angrily to himself, and then shuffled over, pulled open the passenger door slowly and climbed onto the seat, knees first. Once he was sitting, crouched on the edge of the seat like someone making a shitty Death Note reference, he turned to Johnny, “I’m drunk.”    
“No kidding.” Johnny responded, humming quietly as he pulled his car to a rumbling start. 

“Sorry for yelling at you.” Ten said. He wasn’t an asshole, not really, people getting into his face about what he should or shouldn’t be doing just made him kind of angry. It’s human nature. Doesn’t matter that it only seems to manifest in a weird sort of chemical reaction to Johnny. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Johnny replied, “Sorry for buying a bottle of champagne,” 

And that was the last thing Ten remembered. 

 

He woke up the next morning, to the last face he expected to see hovering a couple inches above him. 

“Tens awake,” Jaehyun called out, the moment he opened his eyes. 

“What?” Ten asked. His mouth tasted like complete and utter garbage. Like someone had eaten a bowl of gasoline and coffee grounds and then thrown it back up into his mouth. 

Johnny appeared next to Jaehyun, peering over at Ten. They looked like scientists examining a new specimen of fungi, “Morning,” Johnny greeted, taking a sip of the convenience store coffee he was holding. 

Ten sat up slowly. He was in Johnny’s room. In Johnny’s bed. Why was he in Johnny’s bed? What happened? “Why am I in your bed?” He asked, “What happened?”

Johnny half laughed, sitting down on the mattress, “You fell asleep in my car last night, I tried to take you back to your room but there was a--” He hesitated and furrowed his eyebrows, “Tie on the door, like, actually genuinely, so I figured I wouldn’t… uh…” He trailed off, “Didn’t know that was an actual thing, thats pretty cool,”

Ten groaned, dropping his face into his lap, “So you put me in your bed instead?” 

“What was I supposed to do?” Johnny shrugged. 

“God.” Ten muttered, exasperated. He rolled his eyes, throwing the blanket off of him and standing up. His tie was digging into his throat and he could feel the imprints his pant buttons left on his skin around his waist. This was the worst way to wake up. 

Johnny opened his mouth to respond, but closed it again, “Whatever,” he replied after a pause, lying back down on the mattress where Ten had just been. 

Ten paused in the doorway, holding his bag in his arms like he was cradling a baby doll, his hair sticking in all directions, a button missing on his collared shirt. He felt like he was coming back from a one night stand. Walk of shame, or whatever people called it. He ran a hand through his hair, trying to flatten it as he stared in the metallic reflection of the mini fridge they had slumped against the wall right next to the entrance. It didn’t work, and his hair stayed sticking right up. He didn’t have time for this, “Bye.” He called, offering a two fingered salute as he pushed the door open and started, what they called, the walk of shame.  

He thought he was making good time, he thought he was going completely unnoticed by the swarms of people walking through the hallways, until his jacket caught on something, that wouldn’t let go no matter how many tugs Ten gave it. 

“Hold up, hold up,” Turns out that something, was Lee Taeyong, “Where are you going looking like that?” 

“Good morning Taeyong” Ten greeted with faux cheerfulness, he was still staring straight ahead, wanting to avoid eye contact at all costs. 

“Were you just at Johnny’s?” Taeyong demanded, dropping his grip on Tens jacket dramatically, “You didn’t… Oh my god, Did you?” 

“Jesus Christ!”　Ten grumbled, dropping his forehead against the wall next to him, “No, Taeyong, I didn’t have…” He paused and took a deep breath, looking around him nervously, and then lowered his voice, “can we not talk about this in the middle of the hallway?” He hissed. 

“You did!” Taeyong insisted, “You so did!” He pointed a finger at him accusatorily. 

“Oh my fucking… Are you literally 12?” Ten asked, looking at him for the first time this whole interaction. 

“Maybe, but you’re literally 10, and you totally just fucked Johnny Seo,” Taeyong shot back. 

Ten paused to give a relucent laugh, “That was actually... an excellently crafted joke. But still, fuck you,” He turned and continued his trek back to his dorm. Taeyong, of course, trailed after him. 

“If you didn’t... then why did you spend the night?” Taeyong asked. 

“Funny thing that,” Ten replied, rolling his eyes to no avail, as Taeyong couldn’t see his face, “People can actually have interactions and maintain friendships without wanting to bone each other,” He was in a mood and a half, and he knew he was being an asshole unnecessarily, but could you blame him? 

“Right, yeah,” Taeyong said, falsely agreeable, “You and Johnny had such a swell time at the dinner that you just had to continue your little playdate. So you went back to his place and you braided each others hair and talked all night long, right?” 

Ten stopped walking, making Taeyong crash directly into his back, “Do you ever stop talking?” He asked, deadpanning.

“Just tell me why,” Taeyong begged, asking to the tune of some girl group song they’d heard in the mall a few days previously. He was really an obnoxious human being sometimes. 

Ten groaned for a moment too long, and then raised his hands face level in surrender and began to explain, “I got really drunk and fell asleep in his car, and Yuta had put a tie on the door, so Johnny decided instead of interrupting, he’d just put me in his bed for the night,” He threw his hands in the air defensively, “Happy?” 

“Did he sleep in the bed with you?” Taeyong asked, voicing the question Ten hadn’t had half the guts to wonder about. 

“No.” Ten replied. It wasn’t technically a lie, as he didn’t know either way. 

“Wait, so Yuta and Winwin…” Taeyong moved on quickly once he decided Johnny and Ten weren’t interesting anymore. 

Ten almost laughed, “God. Doubt it. Yuta believes in, uh, divine… manifestation, or whatever,” He rolled his eyes good naturedly, almost immediately forgetting about the events of the previous night, “He does it every time he’s over, seems to think if he imagines Winwin giving more than half a shit about him, it’ll happen,” 

Taeyong nodded, looking almost sad, “That’s a little pathetic,” 

“Tell me about it,” Ten snorted. 

And then things were back to pretty much normal. Ten explained the alcohol he’d drank the night before, Taeyong pretended to have an extensive alcohol knowledge, and asked about the fruity or nutty notes, as if he hadn’t drank literally nothing but beer for the last 3 years. Taeyong described the random group of teenagers he’d met the previous night, who appeared to have been trying to break into the campus, but had ended up hanging out with him all night, and were ‘actually kinda dope’. Ten then borrowed Taeyong gym clothes instead of making the trek across campus to his own dorm. And then they went to class and Ten didn’t think about Johnny once, until he got back to his dorm room a couple hours later. 

 

“Where were you last night?” Yuta asked, the minute Ten walked through the door. Sounding more frantic than curious. 

“I stayed at Johnnys?” Ten offered, this was the first time he’d thought about Johnny since this morning. He lingered in the doorway, looking back and forth between Yuta and Winwin, who were sitting on a bean bag chair Ten didn’t remember being there when he’d left the day before, playing video games. Yuta seemed to be particularly skilled at materializing things. Maybe this was part of the divine manifestation theory he loved so much. 

Yuta huffed loudly, “We were worried about you,” He mumbled, dropping his controller to the ground, and giving Ten a pointed look. 

Ten raised an eyebrow in amusement, “Sorry, uh, mum, was I supposed to call?”

“ _ Something _ would have been nice,” Yuta shrugged dejectedly. He settled back into the bean bag chair and picked up the controller he’d dropped a few moments earlier. He really did sound like Ten’s mum right now. It was never expected of Yuta, but he could be a nagger as much as the next guy. 

“You know you don’t live here, right?” Ten asked, smiling slightly as he moved over to pick Yutas boxers up off of his mattress and tossed them toward their beanbag fortress, “Like… this isn’t your dorm, right?”    
Yuta ignored him, and Winwin looked ultimately uninterested as he took a sip of the slushie he’d been cradling in his lap, that was almost twice the size of his head.

“Also, can you stop putting a tie on the doorknob? It’s misleading,” Ten suggested, pulling a light gray t shirt on. 

“Door knob?” Winwin repeated quietly, sounding confused. It was an ongoing struggle, having 3 people who don’t share a native language in one room. Yuta and Ten were both pretty fluent in Korean, but Winwin had a pretty selective vocabulary. One you wouldn’t expect from him, or anyone learning the language. He actually spoke pretty good Korean, but he often didn’t care to talk to people anyways, so he’d pretend he didn’t. The amount of times Ten had watched him play the confused foreigner card when someone would be trying to hit on him was astounding. 

“Metal thing on the door, Sicheng, I know you know this word!” Ten exclaimed, running a hand through his hair as he stomped over to the bathroom. He walked heavy for such a tiny person, he was told this a lot, “You can’t know ‘astrophysics’ and ‘ambivalent’ but not ‘door knob’!” 

“Die! Die!” Winwin cried, in lack of a response, smashing buttons on his controller. 

“Fuck you!” Yuta screeched, banging the bottom of his controller against the wall, as if it would make him play better. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> an ongoing struggle is knowing like ......... a) barely a thing about korean culture but b) not wanting to erase the culture but c) not wanting to write like some of the kboo dribble i see (u know the type (or u dont and im just an asshole lol))  
> also i hope u didnt come here expecting some *~*steamy*~* romance cuz most of this is just gonna be fun college friends having a good time and beign friends . there'll start being more fun misadventures soon !!!!!!!! (dont get me wrong romance is acomin' but u have 2 wade through miles of sludge of them higkey hating each other  
> (ALSO!!!! im a lil amazed by the positive feedback? this is the most kudos ive gotten for just 1 chapter and im ??? thanks????)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is kinda short sorry!!!!!! im awful at consistent chapter lengths.   
> ive also been soooOOo busy with school and work sry lol   
> a good rule w this fic also: dont take anything too seriously, dont think too hard about character or relationship development. Its all good fun, mostly. just me loving my boys.

Doyoung had this weird sort of radar built into his head, where the minute one of his friends was skipping lunch, for example, or leaving the house without a sweater or doing anything else that every mother worries about with their children, an alarm goes off and he comes running in to tell them what to do. It’s uncanny, really. 

Ten had barely been sitting in the cafeteria for a minute before a tray was dropped down onto the table, directly next to him, “Hey,” Doyoung greeted, casually, as if every nerve in his brain wasn’t firing off at once. 

“I’m not even hungry,” Ten responded, barely looking up from his phone. 

“I didn’t say anything,” Doyoung shrugged. 

“But you were just about to say something,” Ten argued, with a small grin. It wasn’t a bad trait of Doyoungs, it was kind of cute really. Gave Ten a home away from home in the least sad way possible. Which is probably still a little sad. 

“Can’t confirm nor deny that fact,” Doyoung replied, taking a sip of his chocolate milk. He gave Ten an all too knowing look, “So you’re not hungry, huh? Is that related at all to the fact your card get declined trying to buy instant noodles about half an hour ago, or am I making this up?” 

Tens head shot up and he glared at Doyoung with an air of fake incredulousness, or whatever that word is. Maybe it wasn't a word. Ten didn't know. “Don’t make it sound so pathetic! They were the expensive kind, alright?” He grumbled to himself, wrapping his headphones around his phone and tucking it into his pocket. 

Doyoung chuckled to himself, and leaned back in his chair, looking like every cool kid in every American early 2000s movie, if every cool kid in every American early 2000s movie drank chocolate milk, “Didn’t you get paid like last week?” He questioned, raising his eyebrow in what he no doubt thought was an incredibly attractive fashion. 

“Yeah,” Ten shrugged. 

“Ten…” Doyoung looked at him with a sudden burst of concern, “Are you doing drugs?” He demanded, raising his chopsticks menacingly. 

Ten let out a loud spluttering laugh that made the people at the next table shoot him a glare, “What?!” He exclaimed. 

“No money, no appetite, moody…” Doyoung looked him up and down, “Those are all the signs,” He said. 

“First of all, I’m not moody, fuck you,” Ten replied, trying to sound as menacing as possible while he was laugh snorting into his hands, “Second, why would you possibly know the signs of drug use? You once almost called the cops on someone for taking tylenol at a party,” 

“Tylenol looks like ecstasy, I can’t help it!” Doyoung shot back defensively. 

“It was a liquid gel, dude.” Ten rolled his eyes good naturedly, “There is no fucking way I’m doing drugs, dumb ass. Well, unless Yutas been slipping them into my tea, which honestly isn’t that--” 

“Okay, then what have you been doing lately?” Doyoung cut him off, raising his eyebrows suggestively. He had a way of acting like he didn’t know anything, of asking the most casual questions to get the information he wanted. 

“Who told you?” Ten asked. 

“Who told me what?” Doyoung asked, innocently, “I just want to know what you’ve been up to lately. 

Ten sighed dramatically, leaning down to rest his forehead on the table in front of them, “Is everyone my damn mother these days?”  
  
Doyoung looked at him, with an air of such seriousness that Ten had to hold back a laugh, “Ten, I’ve always been your mother.” He placed a hand on Tens shoulder. 

“God! You’re so weird!” Ten groaned, shaking the other boy off with an awkward laugh. He exhaled deeply, “I just went out for dinner, and it ended up being more expensive than I was prepared for, it’s not that deep, Doyoung.” 

“A date?” Doyoung mouth fell open in only partially faked shock at this point. He placed a hand across his heart in surprise. Maybe he was a middle aged mother after all 

“No! Jesus!” Ten said, throwing his hands up in annoyance, “I was just hanging out with Johnny, why do people keep assuming it was a date?” Since when was it not normal for 2 essentially complete strangers with a pretty negative past to go out for dinner at the fanciest restaurant in this part of town? People these days… 

“Defensive.” Doyoung noted to himself, leaning back in his seat with only a slight dramatic flair. 

“Shut up, I’m not defensive,” Ten grumbled. 

“And you say you aren’t moody.” Doyoung grinned in triumph, like he’d won an argument that didn’t exist. He pushed his chair back, glancing at his phone screen as he stood up slowly, “Hm. Well. I have several more questions and things to make fun of you for, but I have to get to work, so I’ll talk to you later?” He reached out and ruffled his hand through Tens hair, the cherry on top of the mother like sundae, and left the room before Ten had a chance to react. Gone like the wind. 

Barely a second after the door closed behind him, another presence appeared across from Ten, “Hey.” Yuta said, sitting down directly next to him, and tossing his bag onto the table.  

“What the fuck!” Ten almost jumped, his English always somehow came out when he was surprised, “How do you guys do that?” He asked, rubbing the back of his head. 

“I was waiting over there for 10 minutes, I just didn’t want to talk to Doyoung,” Yuta shrugged, taking a bite of an apple. He thought he and Doyoung had a long running rivalry, thought they were sworn enemies or something. And they sort of did have a long running rivalry, I guess if you could even all it that. It was pretty one sided. It was unlikely Doyoung even knew that they were anything other than good friends. Poor guy. 

“Okay.” Ten said, agreeably. He didn’t care about Yuta and his pretend rivalries. 

“Not hungry, huh?” Yuta asked, nudging Ten with his elbow. 

“Are you guys running off a script, or what?” Ten mocked, leaning back in his chair. 

Yuta gave him a confused look and just shrugged, “So what’s up with the Ten man?” He asked, casually. 

“You stood in the corner and watched me for 10 minutes so you could ask me whats up?” Ten asked raising his eyebrows, “Also please don’t let ‘the Ten man’ become a thing, I literally hate that,”

Yuta shook his head, “Well, no, but its common courtesy to ask about your friends lives,” He tossed the apple core he’d been gnawing on half assedly toward the garbage can, which it completely missed, instead hitting the wall with a wet sounding bang,  “Not that you would know this, but people who have even the slightest bit of manners don’t exclusive interact with people for the sole purpose of personal gain,” 

Ten laughed, “Christ, you took one psychology class and now look at you,” He joked, “Also. Making small talk before you start interacting with people for the sole purpose of personal gain, doesn’t mean you, then, aren’t interacting with people for the --”    
“Shut up,” Yuta cut him off with a slightly too hard shove in the ribs. 

“So what do you want?” Ten asked, rolling his head back and forth across his neck in a way that he always secretly thought made him look good. Not that he was flirting with Yuta. He just liked to look good. Is that a crime? Maybe he was defensive. Maybe Doyoung was getting to him. 

“Me and Sicheng were gonna have a movie night tonight...” Yuta started, trailing off suggestively. 

“Okay?” Ten prompted. He knew where this was going already. 

“I was wondering if you were gonna be there tonight,” Yuta shrugged. 

“Yeah, I live there.” Ten raised his eyebrows, “You know that right? You know I live there, and you don’t live there, right? You know you have your own entire dorm where you do, in fact, live, right?” 

Yuta, of course, completely ignored Ten and instead of responding to his questions, just gave him a beaming smile,  like he was a 7 year old who’d just been promised he was going to get a kitten for his birthday, “Aw perfect! Sounds good, thanks man, glad it worked out for both of us, I was worried we’d have to kick you out,” He grinned deviously and jumped back up, “I’ll see you tomorrow then?” He shot finger guns at Ten before turning on his heel and marching toward the exit, leaving as quickly as he’d arrived. 

Ten stood up too and trailed after him, “No… no, Yuta. I... I’m sleeping in my bed tonight, in my dorm, where you don’t live,” he was getting louder with each word, “You don’t live in my dorm!” He half yelled, as Yuta slipped through the same door Doyoung had gone through moments before. Ten was standing alone now. He sighed.    
“I hate my fucking friends.” He grumbled, running a hand through his hair. 

 

Ten was supposed to be studying. He wasn’t studying. He’d moved to Korea to study the language, but as soon as his plane had landed, he’d barely opened a book outside of class. He figured he knew enough. So instead, today, in his allotted study time, he had taken to throwing small rolled up pieces of paper into his empty coffee cup. His record was 32. 

“Ten.” The sudden voice broke his focus, causing the 33rd piece of paper to leave his hand with the least amount of grace possible. It fell down onto the floor. 

“Fuck!” Ten half yelled, flopping down dramatically back into the arm chair he’d taken residence in. He glanced up, eyebrows furrowed, ready to unleash his fury on whoever had spoken. It was Johnny. Why was it Johnny? “Hello?” Ten said, it was a question more than a greeting. 

“Hi.” Johnny said. He looked uncomfortable, “Can I sit?” He nodded toward the chair directly across from Ten. 

“It’s a free country,” Ten shrugged. 

“Okay.” Johnny replied. He remained standing. 

Ten looked at him, “Whats… up, dude?” He raised his eyebrows. It was more awkward than usual. 

“Do you want to go to dinner with me tonight?” Johnny asked. He had his hands in his front pockets in a way that couldn’t have been comfortable. 

“What.” Ten said. Johnny wasn’t asking him out. There was no way that Johnny was asking him out. Right? Johnny couldn’t be… 

“Dinner.” Johnny repeated. But he was. 

“Why?” Ten asked. 

“Jesus Christ!” Johnny took a step back and crossed his arms tightly across his chest for emphasis,  “I’m not asking you to… like, rob a bank with me! It’s just dinner, Ten.” He blew his bangs up in frustration. 

Ten gave him a look. He sighed, “Doyoung is making you do this, right?” Doyoung was a known meddler. Of course he’d gone to talk to Johnny.    
Johnny scoffed, “No.” He shook his head, in the least subtle way possible. 

“Johnny.” Ten said. 

Johnny rubbed his forehead, “Just let me do this, okay? I wanted to pay you back for last time, it’s not anything more than me paying back what I owe,” 

“You don’t have to owe me anything.” Ten responded quickly, turning back to ripping small pieces of paper to throw into his cup. 

“I know.” Johnny said, “I don’t _ have  _ to do  _ anything _ ,” 

Ten looked at him. Johnny looked back. They said nothing. 

“Okay it’s like…” Johnny hummed in thought for a moment, “40% Doyoung. But mostly, I just want to pay you back, okay?” He looked almost genuinely annoyed at Tens refusal. 

“Whatever.” Ten shrugged. 

“So you’ll go with me?” Johnny questioned, with a hint of unmistakable excitement. This boy was really that fucking torn up about owing someone money?

“I have nothing better to do,” Ten yawned for effect. He didn’t want Johnny or anybody else to think that this was anything more than what it was. He was hungry and bored, and Yuta would no doubt be barricading his dorm room tonight anyways. He might as well. Couldn’t hurt. He could be doing worse things. 

“Okay.” Johnny said agreeably. He hesitated for a moment, not seeming to be sure if he should leave now, “I’ll, uh, pick you up at 8?” 

“Sure.” Ten smiled. 

“Okay.” Johnny said again. He gave a half wave, and turned back to walk out of the library. 

Was that weird? Ten couldn’t decide. Johnny could’ve just given him money, right? Or bought him lunch in the cafeteria, if anything, right? Dinner was a weird thing to ask for. Right? Ten needed a second opinion. 

 

“Totally weird!” Taeyong exclaimed. It was later, and they were sitting on the bleachers by the football field. It had taken Ten 3 and a half beers before he’d even brought it up. 

“I know!” Ten agreed, pulling his hoodie tighter around him. It was November at this point, and far too late in the year for them to be outside in the evening, but Taeyong seemed to think he belonged in a coming of age teen movie where every interaction he had had to exist within some sort of visually aesthetic location. The bleachers were a big favourite of his, “Is it weird, right? Like he could’ve--” 

“Just given you money? Or bought you lunch in the cafeteria?” Taeyong suggested, tossing his beer can over his shoulder, “Why does he want to go for dinner with you again?”    
“I don’t know,” Ten said. He was shivering a bit. Taeyong had long since shed off his outer layers. He was like a superhero but a really shitty one thats only power is not getting bothered by the cold. 

“It can’t be that he likes you, so what’s his angle? What’s he trying to pull, huh?” Taeyong demanded. He was at least 4 beers ahead of Ten. He talked a little bit like a 50s mobster when he was drunk. Just a little. 

“Why can’t it be that he likes me?!” Ten asked, slightly offended, tossing his now empty can at the other boys forehead. 

Taeyong swatted it away and gave Ten a long look, “Dude, as your best friend,” He paused to laugh, “You kinda suck.” He grinned smugly, turning around and hoping down a couple steps. He was also a constant ball of energy the minute more than so much as a drop of alcohol hit his system. Never stopped moving. 

Ten laughed in surprise at Taeyongs bluntness. He considered getting offended, but couldn’t, “I wish I could disagree,” He admitted. This wasn’t a self hatred sort of thing, rather, Ten probably honestly liked himself a lot more than he should. He just knew that he had a tendency of sucking, as did anyone else on this whole planet. 

“So when is the date?” Taeyong gave the most obnoxious grin that Ten had ever seen him give, which was saying something. 

“Not a date.” Ten replied, rolling his eyes more for effect than for actual annoyance, “And at 8,” 

“Tonight?” Taeyong widened his eyes in over dramatized shock. 

“Yeah.” Ten said, shrugging nonchalantly. 

“Dude it’s almost 7:30,” Taeyong reminded him, “And you’re still drinking with me,” 

“So?” 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” 

“What?” Ten recoiled slightly. Taeyong also swore a lot when he was drunk. You learnt a lot about Taeyong from getting him drunk. Truly remarkable. 

“Literally leave, why are you still here?” Taeyong waved his hands at Ten dismissively, “Go to him,” 

Ten sighed. He was probably right. Still drunk and whiny, mind you, “Whatever.” Ten responded, zipping his jacket up tightly. 

“Go forth young padawan,” Taeyong giggled to himself, falling back down onto the steps of the bleachers not ungracefully. 

“I never should have shown you that movie.” Ten mumbled, mostly to himself, climbing down gingerly. He wasn’t nearly as graceful as Taeyong.

“What movie?” Taeyong asked, sounding genuinely confused. 

And with that, Ten left. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol idek dont worry about it   
> im kinda shocked at the amount of kudos i got after 2 chapters? wowza! ive been really barking up the wrong tree my whole life, huh?   
> pls tell me what u think lol this is garbage but its my garbage and if u like it then its ~our~ garbage  
> **o yea the dreamies (& taeil dw lol) will be comin in sometime soon B-) its gonna be wild


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY ive been trying to update weekly but .............. life and shit man.............. it just keeps happening.

Ten realized about halfway on his journey to Johnnys dorm room that he wasn’t even sure if that’s where they were meeting. They must have made a plan, right? Did they? Ten didn’t know. He cracked open another beer. He’d seen people shotgunning at parties and in movies, but didn’t really know what exactly that entailed. He wondered if wikihowing it would be pathetic. He poked a hole in the side with his key and the beer instantly started spurting out. 

“Fuck!” Ten yelled, throwing his mouth over the hole in a panic.  

And of course, like clockwork, Johnny rounded the corner then, “Oh!” He said, “What are you…” 

Ten looked at him with wide panicked eyes, refusing to move any part of his body except his face as he chugged. There was way more foaming liquid contained in that small metal can than could’ve ever been anticipated and he was finding it hard to breathe. Breathing with his nose had never been a strong suit of his. 

“This was not what I was expecting,” Johnny noted quietly. He was wearing a suit. Not just a collared shirt and dress pants. A full fucking goddamn suit and tie, like he was going to fucking funeral. Just to see Ten. What the fuck? 

Ten broke away from the can suddenly, sending dribbles flying down his shirt and sweatpants. He looked at Johnny, opened his mouth to reply, probably something snarky, knowing him. But the beer had different plans for his open mouth, so instead, he bent over a bit and puked all over the ground in front of him. It was entirely made up of foam and stomach acid and it felt like poison in his mouth. 

“Okay.” Johnny said, not sounding remotely offput. 

No one moved for at least 30 seconds. Then Ten wiped his sleeve across his mouth and coughed dramatically, “Nice suit.” He offered quietly, trying to act casual, like this was a normal everyday occurrence. His voice was a bit horse, no doubt from the surprising amount of beer foam that had just been forced into his throat, and then immediately back out. Maybe it sounded sexy. It probably didn’t. 

“Thanks, you puked on it,” Johnny replied. He really was pretty skilled at mastering this whole ‘acting casual like this was a normal everyday occurrence’ thing. 

“Sorry.” Ten mumbled. He sat down on the ground, a couple inches away from where he had taken his unfortunate demise. 

Johnny sighed, sitting down also, on the other side of where Ten had taken his unfortunate demise, “So… Am I really that unbearable to be around?” He asked, “I seem to be noticing a theme in sobriety levels whenever I see you,” He didn’t seem that offended, actually, he seemed like he was almost joking. 

Ten shrugged, he didn’t really have an answer, “Is this a date?” He asked, swerving Johnnys question entirely. 

Johnny hesitated, taken aback. He had his mouth hanging open awkwardly, like a hippo raising to catch its prey. Or whatever hippos do. “U-uh, no.” He stuttered, “Did you, uh, did you want it to be?” He raised his eyebrow. 

Ten looked at him incredulously, “No! I.. I don’t. But…” He trailed off, and then shook his head, “You asked me out for dinner! And you’re wearing a full suit, for fucks sake. How is this not a date?” 

Johnny laughed quietly. He had his arms crossed below his knees, holding onto each of his shoes with the opposite hand. He was still wearing sneakers. At least that was consistent, “Uh, yeah, well. Doyoung said I shouldn’t just give you… like, money, he didn’t want me supporting your drug habits or something?” He exhaled deeply, like all of this was so deeply exhausting, “And the suit is because… You seemed totally embarrassed last time when I wasn’t dressed up, so I thought I’d…” He trailed off. 

“Oh.” Ten responded. It was all he could think of to say. This was when the embarrassment set in. He paused and looked around him, “How fucked up is it that I puked?” He joked feebly, suddenly aware of the situation he’d brought upon himself. He really wasn’t helping Johnnys case on disliking him, was he? 

Johnny nodded with a small grin, “Pretty fucked up,” He agreed politely. 

There was a pause. 

“Sorry about your suit,” Ten said quietly. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Johnny said. He really didn’t seem to mind.

Ten was quiet for a moment, “I don’t do drugs, by the way.” He explained suddenly, “Doyoungs just… crazy, I don’t know, I mean… You know him, so...” He sounded like a bumbling idiot and was all too aware of it. 

Johnny laughed, “I don’t care if you do do drugs, Ten.” He responded. The use of his name made Ten a little uncomfortable, felt all too meaningful. Johnny leaned over Ten and picked up the discarded beer can and shook it, revealing a few drops still left, which he poured into his own mouth through the badly punctured hole in the side, “So, you still wanna get dinner?” He asked, head titled, looking only a little bit douchey. 

Ten snorted, “Yeah, a horribly drunk me in wet sweatpants, and you in a puke stained suit, let’s do it,” 

“Why not? I already have reservations.” Johnny shrugged. It took him a second, but then he seemed to realize what Ten had actually said and looked down at his suit with distress, “Do you really think it’ll stain?” He looked genuinely concerned. 

“I don’t know,” Ten almost laughed. People and their priorities. 

Johnny spat on his shirt and started violently dabbing at it with another part of his shirt, which did little but spread what had used to be a small spot across his whole front, he sighed in disgrace, “So do you want to?” He prompted, still looking at his shirt.

Ten furrowed his eyebrows. He glanced out in front of them, he could just barely see the field where he’d left Taeyong only about 15 minutes ago, “I don’t care.” He said. And he honestly didn’t care. 

Johnny gave a half snort of a laugh, “You don’t care?” Yes, he honestly didn’t care, this has been established. 

Ten shrugged, “I mean, what’s the point?” He could feel himself being annoying, but something about being difficult when it was with Johnny was fun. 

Johnny paused, letting out a long sigh that whistled between his teeth, “The point is that you’re hungry and you owe me a dinner.” He explained slowly, like he was talking to his son about the point of eating vegetables or doing homework. 

“No, I mean…” Ten shook his head, “You know I don’t do drugs now, so…” He gestured around him vaguely. It felt weird to ask for money flat out. 

Johnny gave him an exasperated look, “You’d really rather me give you money to spend on cheap noodles tomorrow, instead of having an enriching friendship building experience?” He mocked. 

“So we’re friends now?” Ten asked, raising an eyebrow.  

“Well, why not?” Johnny ran a hand through his hair, “May as well be.” 

Ten scoffed, “May as well be?” He repeated, “Why? Geographical convenience? Is that all friendship is now?” He’d honestly been thinking of that line for a while, and was more than pleased to have an opportunity to say it. He thought he sounded smart and analytic, only dumbed down slightly by the fact they were still sitting next to a pile of puke and a discarded beer can. 

“What?” Johnny asked, on the edge of laughter, “Geographical… God, where do you come up with this stuff?” 

“Well, I mean, what else is it!” Ten huffed, “Not like we have anything in common.” 

Johnny surprised him by laughing. It was a loud laugh that echoed against the walls of the dorms, no doubt containing annoyed college kids just trying to study in peace. 

“What’s with you?” Ten asked, indignantly. He didn’t think he was being funny, and it was bothersome that Johnny seemed to think he was being funny. 

Johnny wiped a tear from his eye and turned to Ten with a big grin, “C’mon! We have plenty in common!” He replied, giddily. 

“Oh yeah? Name one thing.” Ten shot back, with a half assed glare that Johnny barely seemed to notice. 

Johnny grinned for a second and then shrugged, “Well, for one, we absolutely hate each others guts, right?” He asked, “That’s a thing in common if I’ve ever heard one.” 

Ten hesitated, processing this. He surprised himself more than Johnny by dissolving into giggles, which were barely even laughter and more of a screech at this point. He nodded, “Yeah… Yeah, I guess so.” He responded breathily. And just like that, any remaining previous angst flew out the window, “All good friendships are based on hatred, I’ve heard.” 

“So you’ll come?” Johnny pressed, still smiling like an idiot, “For geographical conveniences sake?” 

Ten thought about it. On one hand, free dinner. On the same hand, he had every right to order as much expensive food as he wanted for free. On the same hand, again, free food. On the other hand, every non awful moment with Johnny felt like a ticking time bomb waiting to dissolve into an argument at the drop of a hat. But so what? Right? At least he had fun arguing. Ten nodded decisively, “Okay.” He replied, rolling the back of his head back and forth on the top of his spine, “Why not?” 

“Cool.” Johnny smiled. He pushed himself off of the curb with all the elegance of a giraffe, and glanced down at himself, “Should I actually wear the suit? It was mostly for the joke, but I don’t want to...” He made a face that didn’t help describe whatever point he was trying to make in the slightest. 

“Nah, it’s cool,” Ten replied, standing up after him, “I feel like I should be wearing a suit too, honestly,” 

Johnny shrugged as he pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time, “We have time, why don’t you put one on?” He asked. 

Ten half snorted half groaned, “You think I just have 3 piece suits lying around? We can’t all be Mr. Johnny Seo, can we?” 

“Fortunately no,” Johnny laughed. 

Ten was swaying slightly where he stood. The alcohol was fading already, as beer always seemed to do, but it was being quickly replaced with a headache and pressure in a band around his skull. He was too busy thinking about the science behind alcohol induced headaches to realize that Johnny hadn’t finished talking, and was only brought back to reality when Johnny waved a hand in front of his face. 

“You there?” Johnny joked. 

“No,” Ten replied. 

“Cool.” Johnny said. And maybe it was cool. He looked at Ten. Ten looked back. “Wanna get going then?” He asked, coolly. 

Ten nodded and said nothing. He felt his ability to socialize drifting away into the ether, and the miraculous amounts of caffeine he’d consumed earlier just to keep himself on his feet went with it. He rubbed a hand across his face, “Or…” He started to say, “Well. Maybe not. Maybe I should just…” He looked at Johnny, searching his face for a reaction, “Go to bed?” It was a question. 

“Oh, okay,” Johnny replied slowly. He closed one eye, “I mean, it's barely 8. But, if you think you should then…” He trailed off. 

“I mean,” Ten looked down and inhaled sharply in place of a laugh, making his ribcage expand quickly, “I just fucking… puked everywhere, that’s usually a pretty big sign from God to go the fuck to bed.” He laughed nervously and itched the back of his neck. He felt guilty for some reason. 

Johnny hummed in thought and nodded. Ten wasn’t looking at him, but it was the sort of nod you could hear. If that makes sense, “Yeah, okay. No problem, man,” He said. 

“Sorry.” Ten mumbled. 

“No! What? Don’t apologize,” Johnny chuckled quietly, “I get it, dude. Another time.” 

Ten wasn’t looking forward to whatever gay palooza was waiting for him back at his dorm, and wasn’t looking forward to having to fend Yuta off for the rest of the night. But he really did think he should just go home. So he did. He waved a goodbye, and sauntered off across campus back to his place. 

He wasn’t thinking about how Johnny had worn an entire suit because he had thought Ten was upset that he had been so underdressed last time, and wasn’t thinking about the fact that they’d just laughed and talked together like they were genuinely actually real life friends. I’m not just saying that either, he really genuinely wasn’t thinking about it. He was thinking about… Well… Some dumb shit. And kept thinking about some dumb shit all the way until the point where he’d stuck his key into the lock, and swung open the door, to reveal the least gay least palooza-esque sight he’d ever seen. Well, maybe it wasn’t the least gay thing he’d ever seen. 

“Ten.” Yuta said, quietly. He was sitting alone on Sichengs bed, with the other boy nowhere in sight. 

“Yuta.” Ten greeted cautiously. Something was weird, but he wasn’t sure what. 

“So I took your advice.” Yuta let out a sort of choked laugh, leaning his head back against the wall. 

“Never gave you advice,” Ten reminded him, “Didn’t care, don’t care. Go on?” He dropped his keys in the handmade pottery bowl next to the door and began removing his layers of jackets and cardigans. 

“And… Well, he rejected me.” Yuta mumbled quietly, staring up at the ceiling, looking straight out of a drama. 

Ten looked at him with wide eyes. He started to respond, and then shook his head, “Yeah. No. I’m not dealing with this at all. Good night.” He said, holding up an awkward peace sign as he gathered his things back up and stepped back into the hall. 

“You’re a dick!” Yuta called out, vaguely sing songy, just before the door closed. 

Ten rolled his eyes and grumbled a few curses to himself. So much for sleep, huh? 

It really wasn’t that he didn’t like Yuta, and wasn’t that he didn’t care about his friends problems. It was really just this particular Dong Sicheng related problem that would cause him to lose his entire mind if he had to hear about for another second. So he tapped out, respectively. Yuta understands.  

He pulled out his phone with one last swear word. 

 

**To: Johnny (8:14 pm)**

**\--Dinner sounds great!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol srry if u wanted the dinner this chapter , it'll all happen , slow burn, baby, slow burn. disco inferno.  
> i have .......... big plans for the future , i dont think yall even HALF ready for ANY of THIS.  
> lmk what u think i guess idk lol


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have so much planned for this fic flkjdfldsjlfskd this is all only the beginning i dont think yall READY for this

When the car pulled up, after Ten had been waiting for over 20 minutes, Johnny wasn’t alone. There was a looming dark figure propped up in the passenger seat, wearing a much too wide smile for this time of day. 

“Ten!” Jaehyun called, waving enthusiastically with too big of a genuine looking smile for Ten to process at his current mood level. 

“Jaehyun.” Ten greeted with a lopsided grin, “I wasn’t expecting you to be here.” He noted, pulling the backdoor open and climbing inside, pointedly not looking at the cursed stain he’d left so many moons ago.    
“He insisted on coming,” Johnny explained, shooting Ten an apologetic look, “Said he wants cakes and apparently I’m bad at picking out cak--” 

“You  _ are _ bad at picking out cake,” Jaehyun interrupted, “How many times are you going to get chocolate orange before I--”    
“I got chocolate orange twice! Twice!” Johnny rolled his eyes and pushed on the gas pedal slowly, letting the car drift down the parking lot at a noncommittal speed, “And that was like a month ago, you can’t seriously still be angry about that.” 

“Don’t say it like that! You’ve only  _ got _ me cake twice!” Jaehyun argued back, kicking his legs up on the dashboard, “Thats a…” He paused, “100% chance you buy chocolate orange, and I don’t like those odds.” 

Johnny looked at him with a small grin. He raised his eyebrows, “Did you really have to think about what percent 2 out of 2 is?” He mocked, “Didn’t you get like a 98% in Math last semester?” 

Jaehyun grumbled a couple swear words directed at his friend under his breath and turned to face the window. 

It was silent for half a second. Ten was moderately uncomfortable. 

“Hey how much is 98% of 2 chocolate orange cakes?” Johnny asked conversationally, drumming on the steering wheel innocently. 

No one moved. 

Johnny smirked. 

Jaehyun lunged across the car at him and punched him in the stomach. 

Johnny let out a sputtering laugh, slamming on the brakes as he held Jaehyun off of him with an outstretched arm, “Fuck!” He half-shrieked, “You’re an ass!” 

Jaehyun climbed back into his seat and adjusted his shirt. He turned to look toward Ten with an exasperated huff, “He thinks he’s funny because he’s mean,” 

“Don’t try to get him on your side!” Johnny laughed, pointing to the back seat with his thumb, “Ten’s the same way.” 

Ten laughed in surprise at Johnny's response. His face ached slightly after having been frozen in partial terror during the last minute or so of the front seat fight. He ran a hand through his hair and exhaled deeply, not realizing he’d been holding a breath in, “You guys know we could have died right then, right?” He pointed out bluntly, “You fully almost went completely off the road there,” 

Johnny paused and tilted his head up, “I guess so,” He agreed with a sudden smile, jutting his bottom lip out. 

“Do you make it a habit to get into physical fights in moving vehicles?” Ten asked., ever so casually

Jaehyun thought about it, expressing his thought process physically through titling his head back and forth, “You’d be surprised, honestly,” He nodded, matching Johnny’s facial expression and wrinkling his nose   

Johnny only then seemed to remember Tens presence in the car. He turned back to look at him, “Why’d you change your mind, then?” He asked, “About dinner, I mean.” 

“I would rather be kinda tired at dinner than deal with a crying Yuta all night,” Ten explained with a small smile, “He got rejected by Sicheng for the 3rd time now, and seems to have forgotten he doesn’t live with me, and equally that I’m not his therapist.” 

“Sucks. I really liked them together.” Jaehyun noted, apologetically. 

“They don’t really have much in common honestly,” Ten pointed out, shifting in the seat so his back was pressed against the door. This conversation was reminding him to send a text to Yuta to make sure he was just being overdramatic. Yuta had a horrible habit, which took some getting used to, of overacting every mildly unfortunate thing that happened to him, and actually took pleasure in people rejecting his emotions because it made situations just that much more theatrical, “Just geographical convenience, I suppose,” This was apparently the hot phrase of the night. 

Johnny snickered from the front seat, and turned the car back on slowly, “I think it makes sense, though. I mean. Birds of a feather and all that,” He mused quietly, looking over his shoulder to check the road behind him. He’d lost the rear view mirror a couple days ago and hadn’t bothered to get it fixed, “I mean… Being a foreigner in Korea, experiencing culture shock, learning the language. That can bring people together.” 

“Yeah. That’s why we’re friends, more or less,” Jaehyun said.

Johnny rolled his eyes, “Jae, you lived in America for like a year that’s hardly the same.” 

“4 years.” Jaehyun corrected, looking genuinely off put. 

Ten paused, thinking about this, “But you’re Korean, Johnny.” He pointed out, tilting his head for effect. He knew Johnny was Korean, but the way he was talking about culture shock was confusing. 

“Yeah, but I was born in the US.” Johnny said, shooting Ten a look as he picked up a bottle of water out of the cup holder between him and Jaehyun. The displacement of the bottle caused the heap of garbage and what looked like a small pile of beach glass to tumble into it. Johnny didn’t notice. 

Ten furrowed his eyebrows, “You were?” He asked. This was genuinely news to him. Was he really that clueless? Yeah. He was. As had been proven time and time again. 

Johnny sputtered out a laugh, allowing a small amount of water to dribble down his chin, “Yeah. I was. My name is Johnny, for Christs sake. That’s the most American name there is.” 

Ten shrugged, “I don’t know!” He exclaimed defensively, “The guy who owned the car shop down the street from my old apartment was named Clyde Jones and I’m pretty sure he didn’t even know America was a country!” 

“Why are you always comparing me to Clyde Jones?” Johnny asked.

Ten jerked his head back to visually express his confusion, “When have I ever even once compared you to Clyde Jones?” 

“First time we met, you climbed in the back seat and told me, before even saying hi, ‘This is the exact same model of car that Clyde Jones from the autobody shop down the street from my old apartment tried to sell me’” Johnny seemed to have his face frozen in an obnoxiously large open mouthed grin. Like a weird motionless silent laugh. He shook his head in amusement, “God. Really. I can’t believe you didn’t know I was born in America.” 

“So you remember Clyde Jones the guy from the autobody shop down the street from Ten’s old apartment, but not that I hate chocolate orange flavoured baked goods?” Jaehyun demanded, looking fully offended. 

Ten laughed, “Yeah, you have a pretty useless selective memory. I didn’t even remember that.” He said. 

“You were pretty drunk, to be fair,” Johnny explained, finally looking normally faced again. He took a sip of water and tried to cram the water bottle back into the cup holder that was now full of trash. 

“As I seem to be everytime I see you,” Ten noted. A subtle self roast. Classic. 

Johnny didn’t seem to hear him, as he had now taken to swatting at Jaehyun, who was digging through his glove compartment violently. 

“How many Girls Generation CDs does one man need?” Jaehyun asked, dodging out of Johnnys grip and holding the the handful of CDs against his chest. 

“That is a perfectly acceptable amount of Girls Generation CDs to have!” Johnny argued, trying to rip Jaehyuns arm off, with only about 10% of his attention on the road ahead of them. 

“Road! Road!” Jaehyun screeched, pushing Johnny away as he gestured wildly to the speed limit sign which displayed a number quite a bit under the speed they were currently going. 

“Fuck!” Johnny said, finally accepting defeat and turning back to face the road. 

Ten felt incredibly unsafe in this car. He, unrelated to the serious acts of violence taking place in the front seat, had a tendency to get carsick, and felt the beginnings of the gross naseca seeping into his stomach. He stared out the window, trying to steady himself (Which wasn’t easy, as Johnny on the best of days drove like a blind person with no legs). Coincidentally, as he looked up, they just happened to be passing the field where he’d left Taeyong. Taeyong was still there, luckily. Perched on the edge of the bleachers like a bizarrely shaped heron, talking about something that he no doubt perceived as extremely important judging by his hand gestures. There was a small crowd of people gathered around him. 

“Can you pull over for a second?” Ten asked, leaning up inbetween the front seats. 

Johnny paused and looked at Ten with concern in his eyes, “Yeah. Why? You okay?” He asked. 

Ten nodded, “Just gotta deal with this.” He responded, gesturing toward the field with a nod of his head. 

Johnny was clearly not following, but he just shrugged and pulled over. 

Ten slipped out just as Johnny pressed play on his stereo, blasting a really old Girls Generation song which was completely washed out by Johnnys loud singing. Jaehyun was yelling something that Ten couldn’t make out. Ten chuckled to himself and crossed the road, hopped over the small ditch and gingerly jumped over the fence. 

“Hey buddy” He called, vaguely sing-songy. Vaguely the voice you use to call to your 3 year old niece when she’s climbed onto the chandelier and is wildly waving around a surprisingly sharp butter knife. Ten could speak from experience on this one. 

Taeyong looked up in surprise, with already a large grin plastered on his face, “Ten! Ten! Guys this is my friend Ten!” He waved excitedly. He was past the vague 50s gangster level of drunk, and was on the last coherent level he had which took the form of a 6 year old child who’d consumed far too much sugar. The people barely looked up when Taeyong introduced him.

Ten rubbed the back of his neck, peering over Taeyong and trying to make out the faces of the people he was with. He didn’t recognize them. There were about 6 or 7 of them, and they all looked about 15 years old. Ten sighed, “What are you doing?” He asked, as politely as he could muster.

“These are my friends.” Taeyong explained. 

“You know they’re teenagers, right?” Ten asked, in a hushed tone.  

 “Yeah. Yeah! I’m going to buy them alcohol.” Taeyong nodded. He grinned. 

Ten shook his head, “No you aren’t.” He replied.

Taeyong looked offended, “Yes I am.” He paused, and turned back toward the small crowd, “Right Mark?” He asked, raising his arm in the air to get their attention. 

One of the boys looked up toward him and gave a confused thumbs up and small grin in response. He clearly had not heard whatever Taeyong had just said.  

Ten looked at the boy, then back at Taeyong. “That’s illegal, Tae.” Ten reminded him. 

“No it’s okay.” Taeyong countered, “Right Mark?” 

The boy looked up again and gave a slightly more confused thumbs up, offering another weak smile along with it. None of the boys seemed completely aware that Taeyong was even there. Taeyong looked satisfied at this response. 

“Okay.” Ten agreed, trying to hide his smile, “Sounds like--.” 

He was cut off by the blaring of the horn of Johnnys car. He turned back with a glare to see Johnny hanging out of the open window gesturing for him to come back. 

“Fucking…” Ten mumbled to himself. 

“Oh. Are you still on your date?” Taeyong asked, brightly. 

“Uh…” Ten didn’t bother correcting him, “Yeah. I should go. Don’t call me if you need someone to bail you out,” He grinned and patted Taeyongs shoulder awkwardly. 

“I won’t need someone to bail me out,” Taeyong replied. 

“Cool.” Ten nodded. He turned and walked back toward the car, with a bitter expression, mostly for show because Johnny had so rudely interrupted him and he wanted to convey his annoyance. 

“Restaurants gonna close soon,” Johnny explained loudly as he approached. 

“I was trying to save my best friend from breaking the law, sorry I took so long,” Ten responded, pulling open the back door like he meant it. Meant what? Not sure, but whatever he meant, he sure meant it. 

“So you’re turning over a new leaf, then?” Johnny asked with an obnoxious smirk. 

Ten glowered at him, “Whats that supposed to mean?” He raised his eyebrow. He was, honestly, being difficult for the sake of it, but he’d never admit that. Also Johnny was a jackass. 

“I seem to remember a numerous amount of times I’ve had to talk you out of stealing a cop car.” Johnny reminded him, whistling quietly as he pulled the car back to a rumbling start. 

“Okay. Once.” Ten held up a finger, ignoring Jaehyun, who did the exact same hand gesture with slightly more dramatic flair, “And I wasn’t actually going to do it. And no one asked you to stop me. Also. Shut up.” He finished awkwardly, falling back onto the backseat with a quiet whump. 

Johnny and Jaehyun both laughed in response. 

“What?” Ten demanded. 

“You get so defensive, it’s hilarious,” Johnny replied, with a grin. 

“Shut up, I do not.” Ten argued, sitting up straighter in his seat. 

Jaehyun turned to him with a grin, “God, you two are too alike,” He said, “Its like having a smaller slightly less obnoxious Johnny in the car,” He laughed at his own comment. 

“We’re nothing alike,” Johnny responded, a tad too quickly for Tens tastes. 

“What’s so bad about being similar to me?” Ten questioned, leaning forward to look at Johnny as he rested his face against Jaehyuns arm rest. 

“Ten,” Johnny said, pausing between words to take a sip of his water, “You puked on me today.” 

Ten scoffed and rolled his eyes. But really he couldn’t argue with that. He was a little bit of a complete and utter disaster. But so what? 

“Wait, what was Taeyong trying to do?” Jaehyun asked, changing the subject completely as if there hadn’t been an argument to begin with. This was very much the vibe here, Johnny would have Jaehyun in a chokehold, then they’d be laughing about some dumb joke, then Jaehyun would be throwing nuts at Johnny, then they’d be freestyle rapping together. Nothing felt serious. Ten kinda liked that, he knew for sure if he ever got into more than a friendly argument with his friends, they’d bring it up months later and still be sort of genuinely upset. This was a nice change of pace.

“Buy alcohol for children.” Ten said. This was true. That was what he was trying to do. 

“Oh.” Jaehyun replied with a snicker and a nod, “So, he’s hanging out with children now?” 

“I guess,” Ten shrugged. He paused and thought for a second, “Hey, wait… Where does he fit in then? Taeyong, I mean?” 

Johnny made an inquisitive noise in place of asking what he meant. 

“Birds of a feather, whatever.” Ten prompted, “You said we attract people similar to us, and that we’re all foreigners. So what about Taeyong?” 

Johnny shrugged, “Dunno,” He admitted, “Do you really need an overruling explanation of friendship beyond ‘we get along’?” 

Ten hesitated, “Me and Taeyong don’t get along,” He replied, scratching his nose, “There’s gotta be something else,” 

Johnny smirked, “Maybe it’s just geographical convenience,” He suggested. 

Ten threw an empty bottle of water at his head. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol idk   
> why has this night already taken 2 whole chapters? idk! but u know what! whatever! okay!  
> also i think ive been progressively getting more johnten trash since i started writing fics lol like i was like "ya its cute" but now after the last few months im like :-))))))))))))))))))))))))))) & im STILL not over ten on nct night night thank u forcoming to my tedtalk .   
> lmk what u think ig idk lol


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SORRY I TOOK LIKE 8 YEARS TO UPDATE !!!!! i was working full time over the holidays and ive just been s o b u s y . but heres another fuckin chapter, sorry it's not v good i had terrible writers block w it for a long ass (ride) time and finally just forced myself to write SOMETHING down.  
> also im disgusted w the lack of johnten content lately and i cant let the fandom forget abt them so! im ready to make this ship stay afloat even w sm forcing EVERY pairing besides johnten down our throats every second of every day! i'm not going anywhere anytime soon cuz i stan tru love.

Ten didn’t realize he’d fallen asleep until he was awake, suddenly aware of the sudden lack of noise in his surroundings. Weird how you get used to a constant white noise, and as a result silence somehow feels too loud to manage. Ten blinked, yawned and sat up slightly, peering suspiciously out of half closed eyes. He was still in Johnnys car, but it wasn’t moving, and there was hardly a sound coming from the front seat. A violent change from the near constant screaming and singing that had been there before he’d fallen asleep. 

“How long was I out?” Ten asked, quietly. Although the car was almost silent, he could still feel the presence of someone in the front seat. 

There was a pause. 

“Christ you scared me.” Johnny replied, with a shaky relieved sounding laugh. He bent around to look at Ten and grinned slightly, “Barely half an hour. I didn’t wanna wake you so I just drove around in circles for a while, but then I realized I was almost out of gas. So I drove back to school.” 

“So you’ve just been watching me sleep, huh?” Ten said, pushing himself out of the tightly curled semi fetus position he’d unconsciously slipped into, “Like some kind of pervert?” The buckle of his seat belt had been pressing into his side, leaving a pink indent in his skin. He rubbed it gingerly, wincing slightly, not so much out of pain as annoyance. 

Johnny nodded. “Yup, nothing like puking on me and then passing out in my car to get me all hot and bothered.” He replied, curtly. His quickness in response was always surprising to Ten, it was like nothing fazed him in the slightest no matter what Ten said, and he always had a witty remark queued up. This was equally impressive and annoying. 

Ten paused, “Where’s Jaehyun?” He asked, glancing around the car, “Unless…” He looked up in mock terror, “I only dreamed that he was here…” This was a commonly repeated joke, that he somehow worked in almost every single time he woke up from an unexpected nap. He was excited at the prospect of having a new audience, as the line was usually delivered to Taeyong who’d almost always call him an idiot in response, or to Sicheng, who’d usually throw something at him. 

Johnny snorted and half smiled. He turned the page of the book he seemed to be fully engrossed in, and that Ten was just aware of the existence of. 

There was an awkward pause. Or maybe non awkward. Johnny didn’t seem to care so it probably wasn’t. 

“So, this seems like the kinda car that would have water in it for me to drink.” Ten said. It was an extremely bizarre and awkwardly phrased statement, rather than a question. Purely because Ten made a rule to not ask more than 3 questions in a row if all he got back were direct responses. He didn’t like to be the only one holding up a conversation for some idiotic stubborn reason. “Thoughts?” And with that simple accidentally added word, it became a question. He cursed mentally. 

Johnny leaned over and pulled open the glove compartment, carefully extracting a large glass bottle, “Does this help?” He passed it to Ten. It was champagne. The same champagne that Johnny had ordered at the first dinner they’d gone to. 

“Why do you still have this?” Ten raised an eyebrow, accepting the bottle gingerly. It was slightly warm and had an odd colouring to it. But champagne was supposed to be aged right? Made it more fancy and expensive. Or something. Or was that just true of wine and spirits? 

“Dunno.” Johnny replied, shortly, still keeping most of his attention on his book. Ten could probably get naked and piss all over Johnnys seat and he’d barely notice. 

Ten shrugged and twisted the cap off, breaking the fake metal seal around the top. He took a tentative sip. 

The second he did so, Johnny looked up at him with a smug look on his face, “You just drank piss.” He said. 

Ten spat the liquid out onto the floor without so much as a second thought, “WHAT?!” He shrieked, shielding his mouth with the back of his hand like he was expecting a swarm of locusts to erupt at any second. He, honestly, logically, didn’t even begin to believe Johnny, but he didn’t want to risk the chances of even a portion of Johnny’s excrement being anywhere near him. 

Johnny grinned, and said nothing. 

“I know that wasn’t urine,” Ten said, rubbing his tongue on the inside of his jacket sleeve just in case, he paused, “Was it?” he added cautiously.

Johnny guffawed. Ten had never heard a proper example of a guffaw until this exact moment, although he had wanted to ever since learning the word. Despite the sliver of pure rage seeping through Tens body, he had a spike of glee because of this. There was no possible other way to describe his laugh, and it was a beautiful thing. 

“You’re a terrible liar, you know that right?” Ten groaned, once he’d gotten over the guffaw. He capped the champagne again, any desire for any sort of liquid was long gone, “If you wanted me to believe it, the least you could have done is take the seal off,”

“How could I possibly have anticipated that I would ever have the desire to trick someone into thinking that champagne was pee?” Johnny said, giggling to himself, “Please enlighten me, how could I possibly have prepared for that?” He turned back to look out the front window, looking thoroughly pleased with himself. 

“Maybe by looking in the mirror and realizing what kind of person you are?” Ten replied, with more bite than he intended or expected. It was supposed to have come out with a more of a hint of casual joking, but it seemed whoever was running his mouth had different ideas. “Cause I probably could’ve predicted that.” 

Johnny paused, he looked at Ten through the rearview mirror,  “Are you actually mad about this?” 

“No.” Ten responded, a touch too quickly. 

“Then why are you acting like you’re actually mad about this?” 

“I’m not?” 

“Yes you are.” Johnny insisted. 

Ten groaned, “Why does  _ literally _ everything have to be an argument with you?” 

“With  _ me _ ?” Johnny echoed, incredulously, “I’m sorry, but it was just a stupid prank. It’s not like you…” He trailed off with a very final sounding huff and, apparently done with the conversation, started digging around in his pockets. 

Ten gave him a moment to finish his thought, but quickly realized he wasn’t going to, “Its not that, its just…” he paused, desperate to find the right word, “Everything.” He said, with a dramatic arm gesture to help visualize how much “everything” was. 

Johnny said nothing. 

“It’s like you really think…” He trailed off, leaving the sentence incomplete. Johnny wasn’t arguing back anymore, and without an opposing force he was left feeling like a bit of an asshole. It was easy enough to spit back insults or rude jokes when there was something coming back in return, letting him feel like he was participating in a debate more than genuinely trying to hurt someone. Was he genuinely trying to hurt someone? He didn’t entirely know. 

Johnny broke into Tens thoughts with a combination snort-sigh-laugh, the noise seemed more used to get Tens attention than anything else. He passed Ten a handful of crumpled up bills and coins, “Don’t buy drugs or Doyoung’ll have my ass.” He mumbled, avoiding eye contact. 

“I won’t.” Ten replied, staring at the money for a moment before remembering to take it, “You don’t have to….” He began, nervously. 

Johnny cut him off with a shake of his head, “Just take it.” He directed. He ran a hand through his hair and glanced up at the sky, “I mean, really… How many signs from God do we need to know it’s just not going to happen?” He asked rhetorically, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. 

Ten didn’t know if he meant dinner or friendship or something else, but he took Johnnys statement as a clear sign for Ten to leave, “Okay.” He nodded, clearing his throat awkwardly and undoing his seat belt, “See you around,” He offered. He swung the car door open and stepped out into the vaguely soggy dark night. 

“Bye,” Johnny responded, giving a small two fingered single motion wave. They both knew that they had to go the same way to get home, so clearly his current lack of moving was entirely reliant on the fact that he didn’t wanna walk with Ten. 

So. Ten turned and left, making his way through the parked cars like he was on a mission. 

He wasn’t entirely positive why he felt a little bit like shit, but chalked it up to the unrestful nap in the back of a car, and the amount of beer he’d consumed prior to the aforementioned nap.

 

\--

 

“So, how’d it go?” Yuta asked, the second Ten stepped through the door. 

“Why are you still here?” Ten asked, furrowing his brow. Yuta had sprawled his body and belongings across the floor, surrounded by a mess of pieces of coloured paper and photographs of himself and his friends. Any sign of previous heartbreak had vanished. In just an hour, that’s gotta be a record. “Are you… scrapbooking?” Ten asked, incredulously. 

Yuta ignored him, it wasn’t a question that needed an answer anyways. Instead, he smirked up at Ten, “Third date, you know what that means.” He mocked, in a semi sing songy voice. 

Ten wanted to point out that even if it was a date, it would have only been the second, but decided to save his energy. Instead he took his jacket off and sat on the floor next to Yuta. He picked up a picture that Yuta had carefully cut the background out of, leaving just him and Sicheng smiling up at the camera. Oh, right. “So you okay?” Ten asked casually, placing the picture on the floor again. 

Yuta thought about the question for a second, and then nodded. 

“Because when I saw you earlier…” Ten prompted. 

Yuta nodded. 

“You were…” Ten tried again. 

Yuta whipped his head up and looked at him with an annoyed look on his face, “Did you and Johnny fuck or not?” He demanded, completely swerving Tens question the best way he knew how. 

Ten’s mouth dropped open in surprise, his face instantly burning, his face and neck were, no doubt, a deep fuschia shade at this point, “No!” He said, voice barely more than a squeak. ‘Sexually awkward’ might be a phrase used to describe Ten, he wasn’t a virgin, and had no problem joking about sex on his own time as long as it was all hypothetical. But the second anyone made even the slightest reference to anything directly relating to his sex life, he turned pink and could barely even begin to form sentences. This was something, to Ten’s dismay, that Yuta realised 2 months into their friendship, and somehow found new ways to use it to his advantage on the daily. Most often, to get Ten to shut the fuck up. 

“Then why are you being so weird?” Yuta asked, trying to hide a proud grin and cutting a piece of origami paper into a badly formed star. He thought he was ever so genius for figuring out this fatal flaw in Tens wiring. 

“I’m  _ not _ being weird.” Ten replied harshly, trying desperately to change the pitch of his voice back to normal. 

Yuta shrugged, and returned to his scrapbook. 

Ten shook his head, trying to rid himself of the flusteredness that Yuta had inflicted on him. Was flusteredness even a word? Ten was too flustered to remember. 

“Where’s Sicheng?” Ten asked, trying to change the subject, even though there wasn’t really any subject anyways because Yuta had dropped the interrogation before he’d even started. 

“No clue,” Yuta replied, after a moments thought, “You should know better than most how hard it is to keep track of him, he goes where he wants, when he wants.” 

Ten nodded. He took a deep breath. He stood up. He sat back down on the edge of his bed. “It’s hard not to develop a parental instinct over him, you know?” He mumbled, mostly to himself. 

“I’d say I agree, but that's verging on incest,” Yuta said with a deadpan expression.

“Shut up.” Ten threw a pillow at his head. 

Yuta deflected the weapon, quickly lifting his scrapbook in front of his face. The pillow flopped to the ground. 

“I’m going to bed. Go home, or go to sleep.” Ten commanded, flopping down onto his mattress with a dramatic flair. He knew Yuta wasn’t going to do either of those, but it never hurt to try. 

“I can scrapbook with the lights off,” Yuta argued, as expected.

Ten threw another pillow at his head. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dont judge any1 too harshly! everything happens for a reason, and that reason might not b smth we can undersstand. at least not yet.  
> I actually have big big big big plans for this fic that will be shaping up in the next couple chapters (its still gonna b a slooooooow burn tho......... things r STARTING in the next couple chapters......) . i'll probably be posting the next chapter tmrrw or the next day to make up 4 my hiatus. its a chapter im pretty excited to write so i hope ull b excited to read ! !! !  
> Stay tuned & thanks for all the positive feedback thus far!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here is another chapter like i promised i hope u like it i lvoe johnten and im never gonna die

Ten took a deep breath and started mentally counting down from 100. 99. 98. 97.

He got all the way to 45 before Taeyong finally asked whatever stupid question he had come there for, which just so happened to be: “What are you doing tonight?”. Taeyong had let himself into Tens room while he slept, and had been sitting on the edge of Tens bed for almost a minute, in full silence, flipping through the scrapbook Yuta had made and left there last night. Why Taeyong chose now to break the silence, instead of the moment he’d entered the room was beyond Ten, but he assumed it had something to do with Taeyongs undying desire to make an entrance. 

“I don’t know, Taeyong,” Ten groaned, forcing as much venom into every syllable as possible, “What are  _ you _ doing in  _ my dorm room _ ?” It was honestly, barely a surprise anymore, that is, Taeyongs complete lack of boundaries. If Ten woke up and found out one of his friends  _ hadn’t _ broken into his room while he slept, _ that _ would be surprising. But still, Ten held out hope, praying that one day, like a puppy, Taeyong and, everyone else for that matter, would learn what they can and can’t do through equal parts negative and positive reinforcement.

“I was thinking of going to this party but I'd need you to go with me.” Taeyong said, ignoring Tens question. It had been rhetorical anyways, he never expected an answer. 

Ten looked at him, and pretended to consider the offer. “No.” He said, shoving his face directly into his pillow and wrapping it around his head to cover his ears. 

“What? Why not?” Taeyong demanded, his voice was verging on whining. He reached over and pulled one of Tens hands away from the pillow, which flopped back to its original shape as soon as it lost the guidance of a human body, leaving Tens ear completely unprotected.  

Ten groaned again. But, he sat up slowly, finally accepting his fate and the fact that he wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep. He picked up his glass of water from the bedside table, and chugged the whole thing, eyes locked on Taeyong the whole time, giving him the deepest death glare Ten could summon together at this time of the morning. “Because…” Ten started to say finally, pausing for even more emphasis, “ _ Every time _ I go to a party with you, you disappear within 20 minutes, leaving me completely alone, with a bunch of people I don’t know, and then, somehow, I find you three hours later, naked in the bathroom, stealing their toilet paper.“ 

Taeyong looked genuinely offended, “That was once. And I wasn’t  _ naked, _ I was wearing underwear.” 

“It was twice. And no, you weren’t.” Ten corrected, trying to hide his smile. He would never admit it if you asked, but he was actually incapable of being genuinely angry at Taeyong. 

“So you’ll go?” 

“No.” 

 

\--

 

Barely 8 hours later, Ten found himself at the party. The very same one that he had so adamantly refused to go to. Of course, as anyone would have expected, he was standing on the deck, completely Taeyongless, nursing a flat beer that he didn’t want, but someone he didn’t know had passed to him the second he’d walked through the door. He was completely and utterly bored. 

With sudden realization of how well Taeyongs plan had worked, Ten groaned loudly to himself, “Ugh. How did he do that  _ again _ ?” Ten muttered, taking a sip of the awful beer. He had a test the next morning, and an 8 hour shift afterwards, and he really, really, really shouldn’t be at this party right now. But if Taeyong wanted Ten to do something, it was extremely rare that he couldn’t get Ten to do that thing. Ten was, is, and will likely continue to be moderately convinced Taeyong is a sea witch. 

Ten glanced over at the couple making out in the gazebo a few feet away, with an expression he hoped came across as annoyance, rather than interest, turned-onedness, or worse, jealousy. They were the only other people out here and had been the only people out here for about 20 minutes, and had accidently become his only source of entertainment. Of course, honestly, he felt really fucking disgusting standing out here watching them kiss, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do and he figured that he had just as much right to be on the deck as they did, and him leaving would be him admitting defeat. If they wanted to be alone, they’d go home. So, through both principle and boredom, he just… kept watching them. 

The girl shot him a glance, third one in the last 5 minutes, clearly trying to spell something out with her eyes. No doubt something along the lines of “please leave”. Ten, pretending to misunderstand, raised his beer, in a sort of cheers motion and gave them a huge grin. She made a face and turned her head away from him and whispered something in the boys ear After a pause, and a couple most whispers, they stood up, gave Ten a hard look, and filtered back inside into the inferno of pulsing bodies and loud music. It really wasn’t that bad inside, but Ten was too bored to not be thinking about his situation as if he were writing a novel, with a certain surplus of over dramatic flair. 

Now completely alone, he pulled his phone out of his pocket. Wasn’t it almost offensive when you check the time 5 minutes later and only 5 minutes has passed? Ten always, on some plane of reality, expected to be able to bend time to his wishes, but this continued to prove as false. 

Just as he began to ponder the concept of time travel and specifically whether or not his theory of Yuta being the only human capable of it was true, his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of feet coming up the side staircase. Ten hid behind the barbeque. Why? Shit if I know. Comfortable watching strangers make out, but too afraid to look at whoever was walking toward him. 

The footsteps stopped. 

“Ten why are you hiding behind the barbeque?” Johnny asked, suddenly materializing in front of him, looking completely confused. He was wearing a dark green button up. He looked like the jolly green giant. 

“I’m not hiding behind the barbeque.” Ten replied. He looked at the ground. “I was picking this up,” He picked up a half done soggy cigarette butt, and showed it to Johnny. 

“You smoke now, huh?” Johnny questioned, sticking his hands in his pockets. He looked like he thought it was such a hardship to even be standing within 10 feet of Ten. 

Ten looked at the cigarette. “Yes.” He said, earnestly, “I’m completely off the rails… smoking and… drinking. Drugs.” He winced at the awkward formation of that sentence. 

“Okay.” Johnny said agreeably. 

“I spent all that money you gave me on cigarettes.” Ten pretended to confess. He didn’t know why he was doing this, but he was in far too deep to stop. 

“I don’t mind.” Johnny said. He really didn’t seem like he needed anymore convincing on this matter, but Ten just kept going. 

“It’s been a secret of mine for a while,” He explained, “Doyoungs the only one who knows.” 

Johnny nodded, with an obnoxiously fake look of pity and understanding on his face. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a slick silver jet lighter, “Here.” He offered, flicking the lighter on and holding it in front of Tens face. 

Ten paused. He didn’t know how he didn’t see this coming. He gingerly touched the slightly soggy cigarette half butt to his lips and leaned forward, meeting Johnny half way. He inhaled. He coughed. He dropped the cigarette back on the damp deck. 

“I knew it. You don’t smoke,” Johnny summarized the situation proudly. 

“Okay I was hiding behind the barbeque.” Ten suddenly confessed, flinging his arms up in a surrendering motion, “But not from you, I just panicked when I heard someone coming. I don’t know why.” 

Johnny titled his face to the side and gave an almost genuine looking smile in response. Almost. “Okay.” He said, finally. Agreeing to end Tens train of thought before it progressed too far. He looked toward the screen door. “I’m here to collect Jaehyun. So I better go... do that.” He paused, “Unless you have any drugs you want to pretend to do while I watch?” 

Ten couldn’t think of a funny response fast enough, and by the time he did, Johnny had already gone inside. Probably for the best anyways. His response was likely going to be a poorly formed your mother joke. 

He paused on the deck, until the count of 20 in his head, and then followed suit and walked back into the body of the beast, on his quest to find Taeyong and hopefully, as a result, get the fuck out of here. 

 

Taeyong, as it turned out, was not hard to find, as he was in the dead centre of the room, standing on a table, belting out the chorus to some western rock song that Ten vaguely recognized. 

And really, Ten and Johnny were both lucky on their quests, as Jaehyun, as it turned out, was not hard to find either, as he had taken the role of Taeyongs duet partner, and was standing over a crowd of uninterested looking people, seeming to be in the middle of an internal debate of whether or not to try to crowd surf. He was teetering precariously on the very edge of the table, swaying back and forth. 

“Ten!” Taeyong cried as soon as he spotted him, throwing his arms in the arm and grinning that goofy sort of grin that only came about after 7 to 8 wine coolers, “Come sing with me,” 

Ten smiled despite himself, and weaved his way through the crowd until he was stood directly before his friend, “Hey. At least you’re fully clothed, and haven’t committed any federal offenses, right?” He joked, “Progress.”

“What?” Taeyong called over the music. 

“Nevermind,” Ten replied. 

“What?” Taeyong said again, louder. 

“Nevermind,” Ten yelled. 

“Okay,” Taeyong said, making a circle with his pointer finger and thumb, in a half assed attempt at the globally recognized symbol for okay. “Sing with me!” He repeated, with a touch more urgency.

“I’m not nearly drunk enough.” Ten said. 

“Then pretend you are!” Taeyong insisted, waving his arms around wildly for emphasis, “Doesn’t matter if you’re actually drunk, as long as they all think that you’re drunk, you can get away with anything,” He winked. He bent down and reached into his discarded backpack and pulled out a tall can of cider, “Here.” He tossed it in the general direction of Tens hand. 

Ten fumbled with the can for a second before getting a grip on it and then winked back at Taeyong. The moment had passed, and now the wink was just awkward and out of place, but Taeyong barely seemed to notice. 

“This is your cue!” Jaehyun yelled, grabbing Taeyongs arm and pulling him back into the metaphorical camera lens of whatever pretend music video they were filming. 

 Ten laughed and shuffled backwards until his back fell solidly against the wall. He stood for a second, watching the two of them keep their best stone cold model faces as they confidently got almost every single lyric wrong. Maybe coming out tonight had been a good idea, it was nice not having to care about every single thing for even a moment, which is a feeling you only seem to get in a house full of 50 or more strangers, who are all making desperate attempts to get annihilated. 

He was suddenly made aware of a presence beside him. And of course, because he was, apparently, the only person on planet Earth. It was Johnny. Of course. 

Ten cracked open his can in one smooth motion, and took a large sip. “Hey,” He greeted with a polite nod of his head. He secretly really hoped Johnny saw how easily he opened the can, because he thought it probably looked pretty cool. (Johnny didn’t. And he didn’t look cool.)

“Hey.” Johnny returned. He didn’t seem surprised by the interaction, so he must of been aware of Ten’s presence already. 

“Doesn’t look like you’re getting your roommate back anytime soon,” Ten pointed out, smiling. 

Johnny exhaled and nodded, “Yeah, seems that way.” He checked his watch. It was one of those obnoxious chunky black ones that looked far too high tech to be used for only the time, but Ten could almost guarantee it was only used for the time. 

“You got class tomorrow?” Ten prompted. 

Johnny didn’t respond. 

“Yeah… I don’t know why I came out either,” Ten mused, mostly to himself, “I have a test bright and early tomorrow morning, and its not one I could even possibly pass while hungover,” 

Johnny nodded, he looked like he was talking with a secretary at the place you’re going for a job interview at, in that he knew he had to be polite and pretend to be interested, but couldn’t care less about anything they had to say and honestly just wanted the conversation to end. It was a very specific facial expression, but one that Ten knew all too well. 

“Okay.” Ten sighed, and finished his drink in one sip, “What’s with you?” He demanded, pointing an accusatory finger at Johnny. 

Johnny raised an eyebrow, “Sorry?” 

“Why do you have the secretary face?” Ten asked 

“The… what?” 

“You look like you don’t want to be talking to me right now.” 

Johnny paused, mulling this over, he gave Ten a weird look, “Do... do you not remember how our last encounter went?” He asked, choosing his words carefully, “I thought it was pretty clear that, we, uh, we weren’t gonna pretend to be friends anymore?” It was a statement but there was a question mark on the end. 

Ten furrowed his eyebrow, “Oh, is that what you meant by signs from God?” He hadn’t honestly thought much about their argument since it had happened. Out of sight out of mind, right? 

“Yeah.” Johnny nodded. He looked greatly uncomfortable, “That would be what I meant by that.”

“Oh.” Ten said. 

There was a silence. 

Johnny gave a half exasperated sort of laugh, mostly coming from his nose, and looked up at the ceiling, “You really are…” He paused, “Its like... it doesn’t phase you. Like, I bet I could stab you and the next day you’d act surprised that you still have a stab wound.” 

Ten thought about this. “Are you threatening me?” He squinted up at Johnny suspiciously. 

“No.” Johnny said, laughing in that weird way again and shaking his head, “No, I’m not threatening you, Ten.” The use of his name felt weird in this context. 

“Oh.” Ten said. He was pretty embarrassed at what only 2 cans of 5.5% alcohol were already doing to his brain. 

Johnny hesitated for a second, mouth hanging open like he wanted to say something, but changed his mind and closed it up again. He, instead, leaned against the wall and fixed his eyes on Jaehyun and Taeyongs ridiculous improvised choreography again, looking hardly amused. 

“What?” Ten demanded. He hadn’t missed that look, not by a long shot, and nothing made him more annoyed than people changing their minds about saying something. You think it, you say it. He should really get that embroidered and hang it above his bed. 

Johnny itched his forehead. There was a full 3 seconds of silence. “You know…” He cleared his throat, “You know what people usually do when they don’t like someone, Ten?” He asked finally. 

Ten said nothing, waiting for him to finish. 

“They avoid them. And when they’re forced to interact, they act as polite as necessary, and try to get out of there as soon as possible.” Johnny explained, quietly, “And that’s what I’m trying to do. And so should you.” 

Ten jolted back slightly with surprise, and opened his mouth to reply something rude, probably a poorly delivered your mother joke, knowing him as he did. Or maybe to chastise Johnny for acting like he was the bigger person, and for talking down to Ten. One of the two. Hard to say which, because, barely half a second later, Johnny pushed himself off of the wall, and left the room. 

 

\--

“Ten.” 

Ten opened his eyes barely quarter way and looked toward the source of the sound, ignoring the inexplicable burning feeling that came with this motion. He came face to face with Lee Taeyong himself, the man the myth the utterly obnoxious legend, hovering a couple inches away from his face. “Morning?” Ten greeted, groggily. 

“You slept through your test.” Taeyong said. 

“What.” Ten said. 

“I turned your alarms off,” Taeyong shrugged, “You looked so soundly asleep, I didn’t want the education system interfering.”    
“You did…” Ten paused to cough. He ran a hand across his face blearily, “You did what?!” He demanded, swinging a fist (that wasn’t actually intended to make contact, but more to express his feelings) toward Taeyong who jumped out of the way. Taeyong not only wasn’t affected by hangovers, he almost seemed to become somehow more nimble and quick moving. Like the alcohols after effects gave him some kinda stupid super powers. Which was completely unfair, as even 2 and a half cans of cider left Ten feeling like he’d been hit by an 18 wheeler truck. 

“But!” Taeyong, completely unfazed, held up a finger an inch away from Tens face, “I can fix this, if you make me a deal,” He grinned. 

There was a pause.

“You… you can’t extort me for favors by fixing a mess that  _ you _ made,” Ten groaned, he found himself wishing he had the energy to be angry. Or the energy to care about the test for that matter.

“I’ll make all your woes go away, for one small little promise on your part,” Taeyong half sung, crawling forward on the mattress until he was almost fully on top of Ten. 

Ten sighed for as long as he could, pushing air out of his lungs that he was positive hadn’t seen the light of day since he was a child. 

“C’mon!” Taeyong whined into Tens ear, resting his head against the other boys shoulder,    
“You’ll barely have to do anything.” He promised. 

“Jesus fucking…” Ten ran a hand through his hair and gave Taeyong the most unimpressed look he could make, “Fine. What is it.” 

Taeyong smiled smugly, celebrating his victory for a moment before explaining, “I want you to come to this party with me tonight.” He said. 

Ten punched him in the arm. 

“Is that a yes?” Taeyong asked, laughing, which was not the desired reaction, and making no movement to get off of Ten.

Ten punched him again. Harder. 

“Alright! I’ll text you the details!” Taeyong chirped, jumping off of Ten with all the grace of a ballerina, landing nimbly on the ground. 

“We had a deal.” Ten reminded him, just as he was about to leave. 

Taeyong paused in the threshold, “Oh! Right, yeah.” He smirked, in an annoyingly self satisfied way, “You didn’t even miss your test, it’s like 6 am, dude.” And with that, he flounced out of the room. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was planning on combining the 2 parties into one chapter but instead its gonna be 2 cause .... life and shit.  
> also idk if anyone thinks: but this isn't rly a supernatural fic and tens constant belief in his friends being non-human and having super powers is mostly that he's extremely unobservant and thinks that just because he didn't notice something a moment before means it somehow materialized .  
> taeyong a lil bit has super powers, but thats just like , him as a person..  
> also i have an important role for every member of 127 so dw ... just because some ppl havent shown up or had a relevant plot doesn't mean they won't .  
> also ** if ur like "wtf i signed up for a fake dating au but that was only like 1 chapter and even then barely ive been robbed!" stay tuned.........   
> tell me if u like it tell me if u hate it (or dont ill probably cry) tell me ur fav character tell me ur fav interaction idk i have no concpet of my own writing


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much 4 ur patience for this fic y'all i've been busy and busy and BUSY but DON'T DESPAIR IM STILL JOHNTEN TRASH AND I STILL HAVE BIG BIG BIG PLANS FOR THIS  
> (literally like in 2 or 3 chapters BIG THINGS ARE GONNA HAPPEN OKAY) (ALSO LIKE............ SORRY THIS IS SUCH A SLOW BUILD I DONT UPDATE ENOUGH TO BE GOOD AT SLOW BUILDS)  
> also i just wanna disclaim that this doesnt reflect how i view any of the members in real life i just like these shitty tropes and i like this non-shitty ship   
> idk how i feel about htis chapter yet, but lik e, its here and its not leaving so  
> thank u for reading

The camera zoomed out, in a cool sort of star transition, and showed Ten, back on the deck, holding a shitty beer, talking to absolutely nobody. 

“Deja fucking vu,” He muttered to himself, rocking back and forth on the balls of his heels.  

The one difference, from this night to last, was Taeyong had made a promise to stay by his side all night, and had done just that. Although, he was fully engrossed in conversation with a girl that smelt like beans and he hadn’t so much as looked at Ten in over an hour, it could not be denied that he was standing somewhat near Ten, and had been all night. 

Which left Ten, to stand, and rock, and mutter ‘Deja fucking vu’ to himself. 

Taeyong looked up and met Tens eye, which Ten hadn’t even realised had been looking at Taeyong. He raised his eyebrow and gave Ten a meaningful look with a slight shrug of his shoulders, and then he looked back to the girl he was talking to, and then the door, with a final expectant look placed back on Ten. 

“Dude.” Ten said. He paused and cleared his throat. “I told you we don’t have telepathic communication abilities, okay? Also you’re 3 feet away, just literally talk to me.”

Taeyong huffed and excused himself from his conversation to slide next to Ten, “Why aren’t you engaging with the local youth?” He demanded. 

“Why do you say things like that?” Ten asked without missing a beat, “No one talks like that.” 

“Stop being a weird loner and talk to someone,” Taeyong said, ignoring Ten, “Why do you think I bring you to these things?” 

Ten paused and thought about it, “Actually, glad you asked,” He replied slowly, “I have several theories, one, you like to torture me, two--” 

Taeyong cut him off with a loud exaggerated scoff. “Because University is a time to party and meet people, not like… Look at yarn all day, or whatever you do,” 

“Look at yarn?” Ten echoed, raising his eyebrow. “You think I just… look at yarn all day?”

“I said ‘Or whatever you do.’” Taeyong repeated, as if this clarified his initial statement in the slightest.  

Ten didn’t have a response queued up for this. “I know people.” He said tentatively, after a few moments. 

Taeyong fixed him with a stare. “Name one person you intentionally seek out and want to spend time with.” He instructed coolly. 

Ten opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by Taeyongs hand in his coat pocket, digging around for something within the piles of garbage Ten toted around for no reason. “What…” Ten whacked Taeyongs arm with his open palm and stepped backwards, “Uh, hi? Are you robbing me?” He asked. 

“My phones dead.” Taeyong said. 

“Okay?” 

“I need to borrow yours.” 

“Uh.” 

“Why not?” Taeyong whined, “You got something to hide on there?” 

“No!” Ten responded, instantly on the defense. His ears were warming up, and no doubt had pinkish hues trickling in. There really  _ was _ nothing to hide on his phone, but apparently his body didn’t know that. 

Taeyong grinned and stuck his tongue out, using Tens temporary embarrassment as a cover to slip his phone out completely. He punched in the password without hesitation. 

“Hold up, how do you know that?” Ten demanded. 

Taeyong didn’t say anything in response. 

Ten waited. He took a sip of beer. 

“Okay.” Taeyong said, apparently finished with whatever scheme he’d been pulling, “I’m gonna get another drink, you want anything?” 

Ten shrugged. He was still just staring at Taeyong incredulously and thinking about how he was really lucky that Ten liked him. 

“Gallon of milk, coming up,” Taeyong smirked, turning on his heel and ducking back into the party through the convienently open door. Nothing had ever been even mildly inconvenient for this man, even doors seemed to think they should do all the work for him, lest he have to life even one beautiful finger to open one. 

The girl Taeyong had been talking to was still standing in the spot he’d left her, looking around nervously, no doubt trying to figure out where he’d run off to. She was very beautiful, Ten supposed. He wondered why Taeyong had run off so quickly, leaving behind what had looked like an interesting conversation. 

 

\--

 

Taeyong still hadn’t come back 15 minutes later. Or more or less 15 minutes, Ten didn’t know because he had no way of telling how much time had passed, because his phone had vanished along his unfortunately titled best friend. 

Ten groaned to himself. 

The girl Taeyong had been talking to was making out with someone else already, leaving Ten to awkwardly stand and try to avoid watching and to pretend to drink from his empty can of beer, mostly for lack of anything else to do. 

The night had almost perfectly encompassed the previous one, the only thing missing was…

And if like clockwork, the moment Ten thought that, Johnny was pushing himself through the crowd, in a direct beeline for the porch. 

“Fucking…” Ten mumbled, rubbing his forehead with his palms. It was all too coincidental. But no it wasn’t, Johnny was staring directly at him, with a mix of annoyance and worry lacing his expression. Soon, before Tens very eyes, the worry faded and was replaced with a mix of annoyance and more annoyance. 

“So, you okay?” Johnny asked, quietly, looking Ten up and down. 

“Yeah?” Ten replied, voice embarrassingly hoarse. 

“Okay, swell.” Johnny quipped with a bizarre air of sarcasm. He turned right back around and stepped into the house again, pausing in the doorway to turn back to Ten. “Just so you know, I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t need to pick up Jaehyun also. So don’t think anything of it.” 

“Okay?” Ten said slowly. 

“Don’t think that I, like…” Johnny shook his head, ending his own thought, “Whatever. See ya.” He mumbled, walking back into the crowd without another hesitation. 

“Wait!” Ten called, trailing after him, “What the fuck are you on about?” 

Johnny didn’t respond, he was scanning the faces in the party with careful precision, but apparently didn’t see anything he liked, and started moving toward the kitchen. 

Ten followed him, “Johnny?” He said, voice rising to be heard over the music. 

Johnny stopped and fixed Ten with a glare, “Listen.” He said, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb, in a cartoonish example of exhaustion, “I have 2 different tests tomorrow morning, okay? I would love to… Go along with whatever fucking bullshit you’re trying to pull, but I just… Can’t right now, okay? But, hey, good prank, I guess? Kind of?”

“Prank?” Ten echoed, furrowing his eyebrows, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Johnny pulled his phone out of his pocket and slid it open. He didn’t have a passcode. It must be nice to have that much trust in the people around you. He held the screen in front of Tens face, displaying an exchange of messages between two people. 

**To: Johnny (9:43 pm)**

**\--where are youuuuu**

**\--can you come get me ~~** **  
** **\--i’m druuuunk come hang out with me**

 

**To: Ten (9:46 pm)**

**-Are you okay?**

 

**To: Johnny (9:47 pm)**

**\--just please come** **  
** **\--please**

 

Ten took the phone from him and stared at it, willing the contact name to change, or the number to be wrong. But it didn’t work. Those texts had come from his phone, whether he liked it or not.  “But… That wasn’t me.” Ten said. His ears were getting warmer by the second, “I didn’t…” He paused. 

“Then who did, Ten?” Johnny asked, blankly. “The other person I have in my contacts with your name and phone number?” 

“No, you don’t understand, like.. An hour ago, Taeyong took my phone and…” Ten started. That didn’t make sense though, Taeyong wasn’t the type to play pranks, especially ones like this, that could hardly be considered a prank. So then what was his motive? 

“Whatever.” Johnny responded, turning back around to continue his search for his roommate. 

Ten continued following him, “Hey, wait! That doesn’t even sound like me, I’d never use that curly line thing,” He said. “You should’ve known that!” 

“Whatever!” Johnny repeated, louder and slightly sing-songy. 

“But why would Taeyong…” Ten mused, mostly to himself. “He must’ve been trying to text someone else, right? I have a bunch of unsaved numbers in my phone, so he must’ve just, I don’t know... clicked the wrong one,” 

Johnny didn’t respond. He clearly resented Ten following him around, but didn’t seem to care enough to do anything about it. 

“So who was he trying to text?” Ten asked. 

“I don’t know, man. You should ask him,” Johnny said in a syrupily condescending tone, turning around to face him slowly. 

Ten nodded thoughtfully. “Okay, well, uh… Hey. Why not both of us help eachother? Cover more ground. Twice the eyes, twice the brains, and all that?” He suggested quietly. 

Johnny looked like he wanted to say no, but apparently his desire to leave this house overcame his general dislike of Ten, so he nodded. 

“I’ll go look upstairs.” Ten said. 

Johnny nodded again. 

Who had Taeyong been trying to text? Was this also why he’d left that girl alone on the porch? Was he in a, God forbid, relationship or... something else of the sort, whatever that could be? But that wasn’t hardly likely, anytime anyone so much as looked at Taeyong, he didn’t shut up about it for a week. This is what Ten thought about as he slowly ascended the stairs. The only person in the hallway upstairs was an American exchange student, who was grumbling to himself in English and glancing periodically at his watch. No doubt the door he was camped out in front of was the bathroom. 

“Hi?” Ten said in English. 

The boy looked at him. 

“I’m, uh... Looking for… Have you seen my friend?” Ten asked, “He’s… Wearing a red hoodie and he, uh, has very big irises. Like he’s wearing lenses.” He held his fingers an inch apart, like he was trying to show the size of Taeyongs eyeballs. That was, unfortunately, the best description of Taeyong he could offer at this point. 

The American looked annoyed at the question. He held his hand out at his eyebrow level. “Yay big?” 

Ten nodded. 

He jutted his chin in the direction of the bathroom. “Been in there for, like, 10 minutes.” 

Ten looked at the door, then back at the boy. He nodded his thanks and stepped forward to knock on the wood. “Taeyong?” He called, nervously. Why would Taeyong have been in the bathroom for 10 minutes? His first thought, and stunningly quick conclusion, was that Taeyong was dead. 

Someone with a vaguely familiar voice said something in a hushed sort of yell. Something shifted inside the bathroom and something else fell, making a loud metallic clang. There were some scattered footsteps. 

“I’ll be out in a second!” Taeyong called, sounding slightly out of breath. 

Ten ignored him and pushed the door open. 

Taeyong was furiously buttoning up his shirt when Ten entered. He whipped his head up to look at Ten with wide eyes. 

“Ten! Hey!” Jaehyun said, from where he sat on the toilet seat. His shirt was inside out. 

“Hey, uh, Jaehyun.” Ten replied, scanning the room with a small grin, finally settling his gaze on Taeyong. “What are you guys doing?” It was a question that didn’t need an answer. He raised an eyebrow at Taeyong. 

“Just hanging out.” Jaehyun responded, looking to Taeyong for confirmation. 

“Go away.” Taeyong hissed in Tens general direction. 

The reality of the situation set in suddenly and Ten burst into laughter, this was apparently the wrong thing to do. 

“Fuck off!” Taeyong half yelled, shoving Ten back out of the bathroom and into the hallway. 

“Someone out here needs the toilet!” Ten called as Taeyong slammed the door behind him. 

The American looked at Ten. 

Ten grinned. “They’ll be out any minute,” He offered, lamely. He turned back from whence he came, and hopped down the stairs two at a time. 

Johnny looked up when Ten entered the kitchen again. He had clearly given up the search, and Ten couldn’t have blamed him, there were only 3 rooms downstairs and they clearly weren’t in any of them. Johnny raised an eyebrow, asking for information. 

“I found your roommate,” Ten said, as cryptically as possible, opening the fridge to fish for a bottle of beer. 

Johnny didn’t say anything. His eyebrow moved up half a centimeter. 

“And I found Taeyong.” 

Johnny waited. Ten relished the anticipation. 

“They’re in the bathroom upstairs.” Ten finished proudly, allowing Johnny to draw his own conclusion from the statement. He capped the beer and chugged half of it back in one swig. “Together.” He added. 

Johnny groaned, throwing his head back in despair, “Seriously?” He whined, “That fucking drunk idiot couldn’t keep it in his pants for one night?”

Ten shrugged.  

Johnny looked at his phone and grumbled something to himself. 

“I just thought it was funny,” Ten muttered to himself. The reaction from the other wasn’t quite what he’d expected, but then again, what had he expected?  

Johnny shook his head, “It becomes progressively less funny each time.” He explained. “I really don’t have time to fucking… Ugh, God… Wait around for him to finish having sex in a bathroom right now.” 

Ten shrugged again. “I don’t think they’re having sex.” He offered. 

Johnny didn’t acknowledge this. 

There was a minute of silence. 

Ten finished his beer. 

Ten felt, honestly, pretty damn awkward right now. He didn’t really want to hang around with Johnny all night, but it felt weird just to be like ‘hey so, im gonna leave to go stand on the porch by myself bye!’, so he supposed he’d just have to make do. And making do, in Tens opinion, involved a lot more alcohol in his bloodstream than was currently available, so he walked back over to the fridge to grab another bottle of beer. “Beer?” He asked, glancing up at Johnny. Johnny looked at him, and Ten turned away and pretended to examine the fridge contents to avoid eye contact, “As in… Do you… Want one?” He finished, awkwardly. Yeah, he definitely wasn’t drunk enough for this. 

Johnny wrinkled his nose and shook his head. “Thanks, though,” He said, turning back to his phone screen. 

Ten shrugged and pulled out one for himself. He opened it and took a sip and looked back at Johnny with half squinted eyes. “So why don’t you drink?” 

“Huh?” 

“I mean all you do is, like…” Ten shrugged, “Act like you’re so much better than everyone else for not being drunk. Like… Its college… Y’know.” He finished his beer, much faster than he should’ve, and grabbed yet another from the fridge. These weren’t his, and he didn’t know whos they were, but he honestly couldn’t bring himself to care. 

“What are you talking about?” Johnny asked, shooting a vaguely amused sort of glance toward Ten.

“I just mean, like… People are  _ supposed _ to get drunk in college.” Ten said, waving his hands around. “ _ And  _ fuck in bathrooms.” He hadn’t started this train of thought with the intention of being confrontational, but somehow it had just ended up there. Maybe it was the fact that he was on his 5th beer of the night. It was probably definitely the fact that he was on his 5th beer of the night, nevermind his 3rd in the last 15 minutes. He knew alcohol took 12 minutes to start affecting you, so he didn’t doubt a lot of his courage currently was placebo effect, but it existed all the same. 

“Yeah?” Johnny prompted. 

“So, like… what’s the deal?” Ten asked. He felt like he was floundering a bit, he wished he could have concluded that thought with more grace, but, again, he was on his 5th beer of the night, nevermind his 3rd in the last 15 minutes. 

“The deal?” Johnny echoed, raising an eyebrow. 

“Not, like… I don’t mean, like, why you don’t drink, but why you act like its such a personal offense on your wellbeing when anyone else drinks.” Ten clarified. 

“I don’t not drink.” Johnny said. 

“Drinking champagne at the country club doesn’t count, okay?” Ten rolled his eyes. 

“I…” Johnny furrowed his eyebrows. He was silent for a few moments. “Wait, what? Champagne at the...”

“Oh, mother please pass the rosé, I’m feeling positively…” Ten started to croon mockingly, in his best impression of a British accent. He trailed off, trying to think of what a fancy person would call being drunk in English. Please remember that he was on his 5th beer of the night, and was usually out of commission entirely by this point. 

Johnny laughed in surprise, way louder than Ten could’ve expected. “Wait, what the fuck are you talking about?” He asked, struggling to get the words out between his laughter, “Why do you think that I’m rich? And...  and British?” There wasn’t an ounce of poison in his question. For the first time in at least a couple days he didn’t seem completely annoyed. 

“Well, are you?” Ten asked, defensively. He didn’t really even think that Johnny was rich, and he definitely didn’t think he was British, it was more about the feeling behind those two concepts than the actual practice of them. 

“No!” Johnny insisted, almost loud enough enough to be considered a yell. “Why would you… Why would you even think that?” 

“I don’t know!” Ten replied, throwing his hands up in surrender, “You just act like…”    
“So, wait, because I don’t like getting drunk enough to puke and making out with strangers in other strangers bathrooms, you figure I, like, what? Own a yacht? Or.. Or play golf with my family?” 

Ten shrugged, embarrassed at the other boys amusement. 

“Everything's just black and white for you, huh?” Johnny mused. This didn’t seem like it was intended to be a confrontation, but it sort of felt like it was. 

“I don’t know.” Ten said. 

Johnny paused and looked Ten up and down, like he was sizing him up. He reached out and grabbed the beer from Tens hand and chugged the remainder, without breaking eye contact. He took the bottle away from his lips, and tossed it back over his shoulder in one smooth movement, causing it to shatter across the floor. A girl who had been standing by the sink jumped at the sudden noise and shot him a glare. 

There was a pause, interrupted only by the heavy bass echoing through the drywall. 

“Why did you do that?” Ten asked, holding back a laugh. 

“I don’t know.” Johnny admitted, he looked a little nauseous. 

“Don’t you have to drive home?”    
“Uh huh.” 

“Okay, so...” Ten trailed off, not sure what to make of this. 

Johnny paused, and then chuckled. “Honestly, I thought it’d be like… I don’t know.” He shrugged, “A big defining moment, I guess. For whatever reason.” 

Ten looked at the floor, which was covered in shards of glass. “I mean. I guess. But, like… Now there’s just glass on the floor.” 

“Yeah.” Johnny agreed. “That part was more… Improvised. The, uh, bottle throwing, that is.” 

“Okay.” Ten said. 

“Should I, like, clean it up?” 

“Uh. Probably, yeah.” 

“Wheres, uh, a broom?” Johnny asked. 

“I dunno.” Ten replied. 

“Huh.” 

“You could... just leave it.” 

“Yeah. Yeah. I might just leave it.” 

There was another pause. 

“Then… I should probably… I’m gonna go get Jaehyun and leave.” Johnny said, with a slight air of regret and a non-slight air of sheepishness. “I don’t want the owner of the house to…Well...” He gestured at the mess he’d made. 

“Sounds good.” Ten agreed. 

“Okay.” Johnny nodded. “Okay.” He turned to leave, and then paused barely half a step away from Ten and looked back, “Oh, uh… You... need a ride or anything?” 

“Oh, no. No I’m okay.” Ten shook his head. He had no idea how he was going to get home, but he didn’t want to ride with his supposed enemy and the person who’d been making out with his best friend all the way back to canvas. “Thanks, though.” 

Johnny nodded and left the room. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ty/jh is gnna be a thing now kinda but dont get 2 excited or 2 annoyed w that (depending on ur views) cuz its not gonna be a big part its just necessary to further the plot OK  
> also its hard 2 write this tbh cuz i have the whole thing so planned out and idk if its obvious which direction im driivng it in? cause like obviously yall cant know everythign im thinking but im just wondering like... what yall think about things? and stuff? and things and stuff? lmk what u think i guess if u want  
> another chapter coming soon ~~ thank u ~~~


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whenever i feel like abandoning this fic i remember that sm already abandoned johnten and that SOMEONES gotta help shovel water out of this sinking ship   
> (jk johntens never gonna sink)

“I’m glad you came over, man, its been awhile since I’ve talked to someone normal,” Ten said, flopping down onto his back and staring up at the ceiling, he felt a bit tired after spending the last quarter hour complaining about Taeyongs lovelife and other such matters. He paused, suddenly aware of his lack of common courtesy, “Oh, uh…. Sorry I’ve been talking this whole time, what did you come here to ask?” He looked over at Taeil, who was still standing awkwardly near the door. 

Taeil paused, trying to find the right words, “Uh.” He started. “I didn’t… come here to ask anything.” 

“Oh.” Ten nodded. “Okay. So why did you come by?” 

“You…” Taeil looked uncomfortable. “I was just… In your dorm when you came home. You just walked in and started talking to me. You know that right?” 

Ten nodded slowly. “Yeah?” 

“Is that usually how people try to hang out with you?” Taeil asked, looking genuinely concerned.

Ten thought about it, “Almost always, yes.” He wished he was lying. 

“Oh.” Taeil said. 

Ten shrugged, “So wanna watch a movie?” 

Taeil gave him a weird look and shook his head, “I should be going, probably,” He said, almost apologetically. 

“Oh, okay,” 

Taeil looked him up and down and sighed, “I’m genuinely concerned that you don’t seem bothered that a guy you’ve talked to maybe a couple times in class broke into your dorm room while you weren’t there.” He said. “That really seems like something that you should care about,”

“Okay  _ fine _ , so why did you break into my dorm room then?” Ten rolled his eyes. 

“Well I don’t want to  _ tell _ you, but I want you to want to  _ know, _ ” Taeil said defensively. “You really need to reinforce your boundaries, Ten,”

“Jeez. Did you come here to rob me or to give me therapy?” Ten shot back with a smirk. 

Taeil looked like he wanted to say something else, but instead just shook his head and opened the door slightly. “Neither. See you in class,” He offered quietly, waving. He slid through the door crack gingerly. 

Ten hopped out of bed and followed after him with a reluctant groan, “Now I’m curious, why’d you have to go and say all that?” 

“I don’t know honestly,” Taeil responded with a shrug, not seeming particularly annoyed that Ten was following him now. “Kinda counter productive, no?” 

“So you weren’t trying to rob me, right?” Ten asked, sticking his hands in his front pockets and kicking his legs out with each step. “So then. You were pulling some sort of prank?”

Taeil didn’t respond. 

“If I keep guessing, will you tell me when I’m right?” 

Taeil sighed, causing his whole body to expand then retract, “If it were any week but this one I’d say no, but honestly I’m too fucking busy for this to begin with,” He responded, not slowing his pace in the slightest. 

“Ooh. Too busy for what?” Ten raised an eyebrow. 

“Mm.” Taeil said. Or less so said, more so made a noise. 

“Okay.” Ten nodded slowly. “Is it… like for a prank? I didn’t get a clear answer on that one.” 

Taeil shook his head. 

“Did you take something?” 

Taeil nodded. 

“Something of mine?”    
Taeil shook his head.    
“Win Wins?”   
Taeil shrugged. 

“How can you shrug? Is it or isn’t it?” 

Taeil shrugged. 

“Something of yours?” 

Taeil shrugged. 

Ten paused. “Nothing illegal, right?” 

Taeil shook his head after a moment's hesitation. 

“Oh, God it’s illegal,” Ten groaned, “Is Win Win in with the…” He paused and glanced around nervously, and then lowered his voice, “You have to tell me if he is, I promised--”

“No!” Taeil interrupted with an irritated glare in Tens general direction, “In with the… Jesus Christ. Do you really expect to figure it out by doing this? There’s a billion things it could be, and none of them are slightly related to the mob.” 

Ten shrugged, “I mean, if not figure it out then, like, annoy you enough to make you just tell me, I guess,” 

Taeil looked to the skies (or rather, ceilings.)  for guidance and mumbled a few words under his breath, before sighing deeply and turning back to face Ten, “Okay. I promised I wouldn’t say anything, but I have like 5 exams to study for, and I’m just not in the mood right now.” 

“Cool.” Ten said, smiling. 

“You can’t tell anyone you know, okay?” 

“Sure.” 

Taeil pulled a small metal box out of his pocket and passed it to Ten. “We’ve been placing bets, like, with money and stuff. Its really not a big deal, but I was directed specifically not to tell you. Sicheng was holding onto the money while we’re waiting for a few of them to wrap up because he has no concept of currency and wouldn’t think to spend it,” 

Ten took the box and raised an eyebrow, “Okay, so?” He asked, turning the box over and over in his hands, “I mean, I’m offended that I was left out of your gambling ring, but why is it such a big deal if you tell me about it?” 

Taeil shrugged. “Because… Some... might involve you, and you knowing would throw off the whole, uh, dealio or whatever,” He explained, looking a little guilty, “Which actually, you could really help me with, cause I’ve somehow been roped into managing this whole thing, which I’m not being paid for, by the way, and if you could resolve a couple bets right now that’d really help out my grade point average.” 

“Involve me? How?” 

Taeil hesitated, he looked at Ten and then at the box. “Here.” He mumbled, pulling a small brass key out of his pocket, “You can look for yourself.” He pushed the key into the keyhole and opened the box with a click. 

There were several piles of bills inside, each tied off with an elastic band with a sticky note on front. One read ‘Taeyong bets Yuta that he can fuck Jaehyun within a week’ with at least a couple thousand won stuck to it. The one directly beneath it read ‘Yuta bets Sicheng that he can get the numbers of the entire girls softball team’ with only a couple crumbled bills stuck to it, most of which appeared to be American currency. The largest stack of bills, with the largest sticky note, and the largest writing read ‘Taeyong, Doyoung and Yuta bet the entire school that Ten and Johnny will end up together.’ 

Ten picked up this bundle of bills slowly, he gently leafed through. There was well over a hundred thousand won in it. He swallowed deeply. “Huh. Uh… What the fuck?” He asked, holding the bills up to show Taeil. 

“That has been an incredibly annoying one to manage,” Taeil said, clearly not fully comprehending the reason behind Tens confusion, “The odds have changed, like, almost weekly, and for some reason everyone seems to think that I know how to calculate odds, I’ve just been giving them a random number every week but they all seem to think--” 

“How long has this been going on?” Ten asked, flipping through the bills again as if they were a flip book explaining the events leading up to this bet. 

“Few months? Since at least August,” Taeil replied, scratching the back of his neck nervously, “I mean, just since its been in writing, it’s been, like, an unofficial bet since April.”

“This is a lot of money,” Ten mused, he couldn’t think of anything else to do except for stare at the pile of bills. 

“Yeah, well…” Taeil sighed. “It started with just a couple people, but Taeyongs great with that whole… mob mentality thing. Now almost your whole program is in on it, half of them don’t even know you too, but… I mean, you know better than anyone how Taeyong can be…” 

Ten felt vaguely sick to his stomach. 

“Don’t tell anyone I told you,” Taeil instructed, taking the money out of Tens hands and putting it back in the box, “Seriously, don’t, I’m moderately terrified of most of your friends.” 

Ten nodded slowly. His brain cells were whirring too loudly for a single coherent thought to get through. Realistically this shouldn’t affect him so much, it didn’t really matter whatever harebrained scheme Taeyong was trying to pull. But just… Well. He didn’t know. But this filtered through a lot of events of the last couple months and put them into order. Why Taeyong had suggested Johnny in the first place, why Yuta had kicked him out so much (although, this could’ve just as easily been unrelated), why Doyoung had seeked Johnny out and made him take Ten for dinner. Probably why Taeyong had texted Johnny the previous night. 

“Damn, I probably shouldn’t have told you, huh?” Taeil said regretfully.

“I don’t know,” Ten replied, and he didn’t know. 

“I do have to run to class though.” 

“Okay.” Ten nodded. 

Taeil smiled apologetically and turned around to leave. 

The moment that he disappeared around a corner, the sick feeling in Tens stomach quickly shifted into anger. He considered rushing over to Taeyongs dorm and punching him in the face for messing in Tens life like this, but decided against it. Chances are there was a mystical forcefield in front of his face that Tens fist would just bounce off of anyways. 

“Well.” He mumbled to himself, dropping his face into his palms, “Fuck.” 

\-- 

 

Ten was slightly out of breath when he finally found Johnny sitting on a bench outside the cafeteria. “Hey.” He greeted, as casually as he could muster. 

“Stalking me, much?” Johnny asked, without looking up from his book. 

“As if.” Ten rolled his eyes. “Saw you from across campus, you’re pretty hard to miss, you know.” 

“Are you calling me fat?” Johnny smirked. “Also, are you suggesting you didn’t go to my dorm room and ask my roommate for my exact location and then speed walk here in hopes of catching me? Sounds like stalking to me.” 

“That’s not stalking, that’s just… locating.” 

“Yeah tell that to the judge.” 

“Can you stop being yourself for like 3 minutes?” Ten demanded, “Like… even for a minute? At all? 30 seconds?” 

Johnny paused to fake think about it. “For 50 bucks.” He offered. 

“Alright, asshole. There’s a bet.” Ten said. 

“Huh?” Johnny looked up at him for the first time since he’d gotten there. What an asshole. 

“A bet. About us.” Ten explained. “With, like, a ton of money riding on it.” 

“What?” 

Ten sighed and stared up at the clouds, trying to make the words come out in a coherent string, “There’s a bet, that like half of our program is in on, that we’re going to…” He paused. “Like, end up… dating. Or whatever.” He practiced his explanation a dozen times on his way over, but subconsciously completely disregarded all of that the moment he opened his mouth. 

Johnny snorted. “Thats stupid,” He said. 

“I know.” Ten said. 

“So what do you want me to do about it?” Johnny raised an eyebrow.  

“I don’t know.” Ten said. 

Johnny looked at him. “So… Why did you tell me?” He asked slowly. 

“I don’t know!” Ten repeated defensively, “Thought you might be interested to know that half our class is trying to force us into a relationship!” 

Johnny nodded. He looked up at the sky. “Why us, you figure?” He mused, “I get the whole… Enemies but secret lovers thing, but… I would’ve thought there’d be more money in… Well, I don’t know, Yuta and Sicheng or whatever. That’s the real fucking prom king and queen of this year.” 

Ten gave him a look. “You get the whole enemies but secret lovers thing?” He echoed. 

“In theory!” Johnny clarified, “Theoretically, not… ” 

Ten rolled his eyes and shrugged,moving to sit down next to him on the bench. “It’s been going on since April. All, like, part of Taeyongs fucking masterplan or whatever. He’s the one that got everyone into it,” 

“April?” Johnny repeated. 

“Mm.” Ten nodded. “Which is, totally weird right? Like we didn’t even really talk in April.”    
“We barely talk now.” Johnny pointed out. 

Ten looked at him, “We talk quite a bit now.” 

Johnny laughed. “Yeah. Guess so.” 

There was a pause. 

“So what do we do about it then?”    
Ten shrugged, “I don’t know.” He said slowly, “Nothing?” 

Johnny nodded, exhaling slowly. “Cool.” 

“Cool.” Ten repeated. 

“Cool.” Johnny said again, with a chuckle. 

Ten looked at him, “I’m not going to say cool again.” He told him. 

“You just did.”    
“Shut up.” 

“Ha.” Johnny smiled. 

“I’m going to go now.” Ten told him. 

“Sounds like a plan.” Johnny nodded. 

“Bye.” Ten said. 

“Bye.” Johnny said. 

Ten stood up slowly. “Bye.” He said again. 

“I’m not going to say bye again,” Johnny mocked. 

“You just did,”    
“Holy shit just leave.” 

Ten left. 

 

\-- 

 

“I’m mad at you.” Taeyong said, sitting down across from Ten with a loud huff. 

“You’re mad at me.” Ten repeated slowly, looking up at him with annoyance. If anyone had reason to be annoyed at anyone, it was definitely Ten at Taeyong, but Taeyong didn’t know that. 

“Yes.” Taeyong said. “That’s why I’m ignoring you.” 

“You saw me from across the room, walked over here, and started a conversation with me.” Ten pointed out, turning back to his notes with disinterest. 

“I needed you to know that I’m ignoring you,” Taeyong replied, “Otherwise what’s the point?” 

“Can’t argue with that.” Ten smiled in spite of himself. 

Taeyong huffed again, louder. He pulled out his phone and pointedly typed something into it. 

Ten didn’t acknowledge him in the slightest. He started a mental countdown. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6.    
“Do you know why I’m ignoring you?” Taeyong asked. 

“You’re not very good at this you know.” Ten told him. 

“Because you interrupted me and Jaehyun.” Taeyong ignored Ten completely, “We had a good thing going and then  _ someone _ ruined the mood,” 

“You literally said you were going to go get us drinks, and then didn’t come back for an hour. I was _ concerned _ .” 

“Then we spent the rest of the night talking about feelings.” 

“What?” 

“What what?” 

“Feelings?” 

“What part of that do you not understand.” Taeyong glared at him. 

“What feelings?” Ten asked. 

“Contrary to popular belief I have a few.” 

Ten snorted. “So what’s the verdict?” 

“Verdict?” 

“With your feelings.”

“What do you mean?” 

“Nevermind! You’re the worst,” Ten groaned. “Go back to ignoring me now.” 

Taeyong looked him. “So, what did you do for the rest of the night?” He asked.   
“Not much.” Ten shrugged. 

“Hang out with anyone?” 

Oh. Right. “Uh, yeah,” Ten nodded slowly, “Johnny showed up so I hung out with him for a while.” 

Taeyong gave himself a self satisfied smirk that Ten wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been looking for it. 

“Why’d you ask?” 

“Ah. No reason.” Taeyong pushed himself out of his chair and brushed imaginary dirt off his pants, “I gotta go to class now, see ya,” He offered a vague salute, and ducked out of the library faster than Ten could’ve said bye. Not that he was going to say bye.  

Ten shrugged and turned back to his homework. 

Taeyong walked back in the room barely a minute later. “What are you doing tonight?” He asked. 

“Being ignored by you, hopefully.” Ten replied. “You keep talking about it, so now I’m all excited to actually, y’know, experience it.” 

Taeyong grinned. “Okay, well.” He swayed back and forth on the balls of his heels. “There’s a party that you should totally come to.” 

“No.” Ten said. He looked at Taeyong. “No, I’m not going to a party. We’re not doing this. I have class tomorrow at 8 am and I’m not going to be talked into this again.” 

Taeyong didn’t say anything. 

“I’m not gonna end up on that  _ fucking _ porch again, drinking another fucking beer and wondering how you convinced me to come,” Ten insisted, “I’m going to finish up here and then go to bed, and I don’t care what you say.” 

Next thing Ten knew, he was standing on that fucking porch again, drinking another fucking beer wondering how Taeyong convinced him to come. 

“Fuck!” He yelled, as realization dawned on him. A couple people looked up in alarm. “Why are you always partying? How do you all have time for this?!” He demanded, flinging his arms in the air.  

A guy nearby gave him a judgemental glare. 

“I fucking hate Lee Taeyong.” Ten mumbled to himself, throwing the beer he was holding onto the ground and stomping into the house. He was going to go home and sleep, Taeyong could trick him into coming here, but he couldn’t trick him into staying, Ten was 60% sure of this fact. 

But, of course… When Johnny appeared out of the crowd Ten was hardly surprised. 

“Fuck off.” Ten said. 

“What?” Johnny said. 

“I’m not doing this right now!” Ten groaned, “I have a full day of classes tomorrow, I can’t…” He took a deep breath. 

“What are you talking about, weirdo?” Johnny asked, putting his hands in his jean jacket pockets and grinning. He looked terribly cheesey and it pissed Ten off a little bit. 

“Okay.” Ten said decisively. He scanned the room, and grabbed Johnny by the arm, pulling him into the closet nearby. “Listen…” 

“If you kiss me I’m going to punch you.” Johnny warned. 

“I’m not going to kiss you.” Ten said. 

“Yeah, sure.”    
Ten groaned again. 

“What’s up with you?” Johnny asked, raising an eyebrow. (Ten could only assume he was raising an eyebrow, it was very dark in the closet.) “Also, why are we in a closet?” 

“I don’t want Taeyong to hear us.”    
“Paranoid, much?”

“I’m a little bit convinced he’s a witch.” Ten said, very seriously.

“Alright.” Johnny said agreeably, in the same way you would talk to a child who was showing you their artwork. 

Ten paused. He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, praying to every God he could think of for the courage to say what he was about to say. “I think we need to pretend to date.” He said. “I think we have to let them win the bet.”

“What?” Johnny asked, before Ten had even finished his sentence. 

“Otherwise I don’t think Taeyongs going to stop.” 

“You want to…” Johnny scratched his eyebrow. “Pretend to be in love, so your best friend… Who’s a witch, won’t… What? Cast a spell on you?” 

“Okay, first no one said anything about ‘love’. Also... I’m serious, Johnny.” Ten said, exasperated. “I need to fucking… Graduate, okay? I can’t keep going to these fucking parties, okay?”    
“I fail to see the correlation between those statements.” Johnny said, after a moment's hesitation. 

“It won’t be hard, we’ve done it before, right? At my staff dinner?” 

Johnny sighed. 

“Unless you can think of a better way out of this.”

“You’re acting like this--” Johnny waved his hands around in the air. “--Affects me negatively,” Johnny pointed out. “Pretending to date you isn’t going to benefit  _ me _ in the slightest, and not dating you isn’t going to whatever the opposite of benefit is me in the slightest.” 

Ten nodded sarcastically. “Right, because you’re here tonight because you wanted to be, right?” 

“Well, no. Jaehyun called me and said to…” Johnny trailed off, as realization hit him. “Okay, shut up, whatever.” 

“And it’s not like this has to be a thing, okay? I mean, we can break up in a week,” Ten assured him. 

“I don’t want to agree to this.” Johnny said. 

“Yeah, and I didn’t want to propose this to begin with.”    
“You didn’t have to.” 

“Yeah. And you don’t have to agree.” 

Johnny groaned. “Alright. Whatever.” He said definitively. “But you’re going to owe me big time.” 

Ten paused and thought about it. “Deal.” He nodded. He held hand out for Johnny to shake, and then realized the other couldn’t see what he was doing. “I’m holding my hand for you to shake.” 

“I’m okay with not shaking your hand right now, Ten.” 

“Okay.” 

There was a pause. 

“Don’t tell anyone about this, okay?” Ten requested, suddenly feeling nervous. “If they find out we’re lying it’s…” 

“Sure. I’m going to leave the closet now.” Johnny agreed. “There’s a gay joke in there somewhere, but I’m too tired to make it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wonder if its obvious that i came up with this plotline while writing the fic, and only came up with this whole arc after writing like 4 or 5 chapters...............................................................  
> slkfjsdlkfskdjflsdjfljsdlfjsdlfjsldjflsj whatever   
> SO yeah things are boughta get............. real spicy real quick here   
> (kinda)   
> (this is such a slow build im so sorry)   
> (things are gonna move faster now)   
> (kinda)  
> THANKS! FOR! READING! i'm so tired! im going to go to bed now! tell me what you think! i love nct! goodnight!  
> && thanks for ur nice reviews!!!! they make me smile a lot & want to keep writing thank u thank u


End file.
